| Tarakhil Power Plant | |
|---|---|
 View of the Tarakhil power station, near Kabul, Afghanistan | |
| Country | Afghanistan |
| Location | Near Kabul |
| Construction began | 2007 |
| Commission date | 2009 |
| Construction cost | $335 million USD |
| Power generation | |
| Nameplate capacity | 105MW |
| [edit on Wikidata] | |
The Tarakhil Power Plant is an oil-fired electricity-producing power plant near Kabul, Afghanistan. Backed by USAID, the plant came online in 2009. The plant, built at a cost of $335 million USD 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. 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. Press reports have frequently referred to the plant as the "white elephant of Kabul".
History
Land for the plant was donated by Afghan president Hamid Karzai in 2007. Construction, executed by the US firm Black & Veatch, began the same year. The plant was opened in 2009. While USAID had estimated that the plant would cost only $120 million USD, it ultimately cost $335 million.
Operations
At full capacity, the plant burns 600,000 litres (130,000 imp gal; 160,000 US gal) of diesel fuel per day. 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. Between 2014 and 2015, the plant produced less than 0.5% of Kabul's electricity needs.
References
- ^ "12 Ways Your Tax Dollars Were Wasted in Afghanistan". NBC News.
- ^ "Diesel Gensets Aim at the Future". POWER Magazine. 1 October 2015.
- "Report to the United States Congress" (PDF). sigar.mil. p. 39.
- ^ Walsh, Nick Paton. "Is US-Afghan power plant a white elephant?". channel4.com.
- "Kansas in Middle East? How US has – and hasn't – changed Afghanistan". Christian Science Monitor. 3 December 2019.
- ^ "Tarakhil Power Plant". www.usaid.gov. 7 May 2019.
- ^ Wise, Lindsay. "Watchdog: U.S.-funded power plant in Afghanistan at risk of 'catastrophic failure'". mcclatchydc.com.
- ^ "Paying Off The Warlords". www.cbsnews.com.
- 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.
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