Omar Ayub Khan, Pakistan's minister for power, petroleum and natural resources, said in a tweet the reactor was connected to the grid at 21.37pm on 18 March 2021. He said current gross generation was 105 MW.
Earlier this month press reports said the plant – also known as Karachi-2 – had achieved criticality on 28 February.
There are two plants, Kanupp-2 and Kanupp-3, under construction at the Kanupp site. They are the first of China’s indigenous Generation III HPR1000, or Hualong One, reactor design to be built overseas.
Construction of Kanupp-2 began in August 2015 and of Kanupp-3 in May 2016. Kanupp-3 is scheduled for commercial operation in 2022.
Pakistan has five commercial nuclear reactors which in 2019 provided a 6.6% share of its electricity production.
The Hualong One is a three-loop pressurised water reactor. It incorporates elements of China National Nuclear Corporation’s ACP1000 and China General Nuclear’s ACPR1000+ reactor designs.