The power station on the river

WAPDA built the Kot Addu power station in five phases, starting in 1985 and finishing in 1996 (KAPCO's own pages also give 1997). It has a nameplate capacity of 1,600 MW from ten gas turbines and five steam turbines in three blocks, and it can burn natural gas, low-sulphur furnace oil or diesel. KAPCO describes it as Pakistan's largest combined-cycle plant.

1996: the sale

Kot Addu Power Company was incorporated on 25 April 1996 to take the plant over from WAPDA. On 27 June 1996, after international bidding, WAPDA sold 36% to a strategic investor — the British company National Power, later International Power — with a 25-year power purchase agreement.

In February 2005 another 18% was sold to the public, and the shares were listed on Pakistan's stock exchanges on 18 April 2005. In August 2013 the foreign investor sold its whole stake to Pakistani companies and individuals.

Silence, then a smaller return

The original agreement expired on 24 October 2022. In its last full year the plant ran at a 42.4% load factor, mostly on furnace oil. After expiry it received no capacity payments.

In February 2025 the regulator, NEPRA, put the plant back into the national power acquisition plan to 2027. A new three-way agreement with the Central Power Purchasing Agency and the National Grid Company was signed on 4 June 2025, and after capacity and heat-rate tests it took effect on 13 September 2025 for up to 495 MW — running on imported LNG in summer and furnace oil in winter.

The plant's exposure to the river was tested in 2010, when floodwater cut its oil supply from the PARCO refinery and output across the area's plants fell to 1,600 MW of a possible 2,400.