Tarakhil Power Plant

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Tarakhil Power Plant
160301 - tarakhil power plant.webp
View of the Tarakhil power station, near Kabul, Afghanistan
CountryAfghanistan
LocationNear Kabul
Construction began2007
Commission date 2009
Construction cost$335 million USD
Power generation
Nameplate capacity 105MW
Tarakhil Power Station entrance Tarakhil Power Station Entrance.jpg
Tarakhil Power Station entrance

The Tarakhil Power Plant is an oil-fired electricity-producing power plant near Kabul, Afghanistan. Backed by USAID, the plant came online in 2009. [1] The plant, built at a cost of $335 million USD [2] and designed to provide a more reliable electricity source for Kabul, has typically operated at a fraction of its capacity and provided meagre annual outputs of electricity. [1] [3] A 2015 report cited the plant's average annual output as 2% of its capacity, due to the high cost of importing diesel fuel into Afghanistan. [2] [4] Press reports have frequently referred to the plant as the "white elephant of Kabul". [5] [4]

Contents

History

Land for the plant was donated by Afghan president Hamid Karzai in 2007. [6] Construction, executed by the US firm Black & Veatch, began the same year. [6] The plant was opened in 2009. [6] [7] While USAID had estimated that the plant would cost only $120 million USD, it ultimately cost $335 million. [8]

Operations

At full capacity, the plant burns 600,000 litres (130,000 imp gal; 160,000 US gal) of diesel fuel per day. [8] Designed to provide a more reliable electricity source for Kabul, from July 2010 to December 2013, the plant produced 2.2 percent of its rated nameplate capacity. [7] Between 2014 and 2015, the plant produced less than 0.5% of Kabul's electricity needs. [1] [9]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "12 Ways Your Tax Dollars Were Wasted in Afghanistan". NBC News.
  2. 1 2 "Diesel Gensets Aim at the Future". POWER Magazine. 1 October 2015.
  3. "Report to the United States Congress" (PDF). sigar.mil. p. 39.
  4. 1 2 Walsh, Nick Paton. "Is US-Afghan power plant a white elephant?". channel4.com.
  5. "Kansas in Middle East? How US has – and hasn't – changed Afghanistan". Christian Science Monitor. 3 December 2019.
  6. 1 2 3 "Tarakhil Power Plant". www.usaid.gov. 7 May 2019.
  7. 1 2 Wise, Lindsay. "Watchdog: U.S.-funded power plant in Afghanistan at risk of 'catastrophic failure'". mcclatchydc.com.
  8. 1 2 "Paying Off The Warlords". www.cbsnews.com.
  9. EDT, Lucy Westcott On 8/13/15 at 12:50 PM (13 August 2015). "U.S. Paid $335 Million for a Power Plant in Afghanistan No One Is Using". Newsweek.