Metro Power Company Limited

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Metro Power Company Limited (MPCL or the Company) is developing a 50MW wind power generation plant located over 6.28km2 (1,553 acres, about 8.5 km in length and 1km in width) of land in the Jhimpir Wind Corridor, Thatta District of Sindh Province in Pakistan. The project involves engineering, design, procurement, construction, turbine erection, grid tie-in, commissioning and operation & maintenance of the 50MW wind power generation facility (the Project). The Project will be an independent power producer and will sell electricity to the National Transmission and Despatch Company Limited (NTDC) under a 20-year Energy Purchase Agreement (EPA). NTDC’s payment obligations under the EPA will be guaranteed by the Government of Pakistan. MPCL is a special purpose vehicle set up by Iqbal Alimohamed & Family and InfraCo Asia Keenjhar Wind Pte Ltd (collectively, the “Sponsors”) to develop the Project. Iqbal Alimohamed & Family belongs to the Gul Ahmed Group, one of the oldest and largest local business groups in Pakistan and known to IFC through a prior investment in their thermal IPP project (Gul Ahmed Energy - #4998). InfraCo Asia Keenjhar Wind Pte Ltd is a 100% owned subsidiary of InfraCo Asia Development Private Limited (InfraCo Asia), which is a donor funded infrastructure development and investment company headquartered in Singapore. InfraCo Asia is financed by the multilateral development organization Private Infrastructure Development Group, which is a coalition of donors and DFIs, established specifically to finance and support private investments in infrastructure, members of which include the development agencies of Australia, Austria, Ireland, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Germany and the World Bank Group including IFC. The Project site is located in the south of Pakistan between Karachi and Hyderabad, about 100 km inland from the coast, and is within Jhimpir Wind Corridor where good wind resources have been identified and the Alternative Energy Development Board of Pakistan (AEDB) is promoting multiple wind farm projects. AEDB leased the land from the Government of Sindh and is sub-leasing to 11 independent power producers (50MW each). The Company leased 1,553 acres of land in 2008 from AEDB and has been investigating wind resources and optimal site layout. The Project site is in a semi-desert area and mostly barren land with sparse vegetation and is largely uninhabited. Two small settlements are located on site at distance of 550m and 345m from the nearest WTG. The Project will use 20 wind turbine generators (WTGs), N100/2500 (2.5MW each, 99.8 m rotor diameter, 80m hub height) manufactured by German company, Nordex. An individual WTG will require about 2.5 acres of land. For 20 WTGs, the land use is thus likely to be about 50 acres out of the total 1,553 acres leased to the Company. The construction work will be carried out by a Pakistani company, Descon, in collaboration with Nordex. The Company will also develop 18 km of internal access roads to service the WTGs and a 12-13 km access road from the existing public road. The WTGs will be connected to a 132 kV high voltage switchyard in the power plant via a 22 kV underground electrical collection system. Electricity from the Project will be transmitted from this 132 kV switchyard to the NTDC / Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (HESCO) 132 kV substation. NTDC will develop the connecting transmission line (about 10 km) from the 132 kV switchyard to their 132 kV substation. According to the Company’s initial examination, no major E&S risks are anticipated in relation to the NTDC transmission line or the Company access road. Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) examined the Company’s Initial Environmental Examination (IEE) and accorded environmental approval in June 2009. This approval was further extended through SEPA’s letter dated December 24, 2012. It is expected that the construction work will start during the last quarter of 2013 and will be completed in 18 months.