Mangla refurbishment project in full swing

WAPDA to enhance generation capacity to 1,310MW

LAHORE: Mangla refurbishment project, a major undertaking to increase the power production, as well as, the life of the dam, is smoothly pressing towards its completion, a statement said on Thursday.

“The project, on its completion, would enhance generation capacity of the hydel power station from 1,000MW to 1310MW; thus, registering an increase of 310MW,” Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) Chairman Lt Gen Muzammil Hussain (Retd) said during his visit to the Mangla dam.

“Mangla dam has been playing a pivotal role for socio-economic development of the country since its completion in 1967 by releasing the stored water for agriculture, mitigating floods and providing low-cost hydel electricity to the national grid.”

During the visit, the chairman inspected the main dam, spillway, and the hydel power station.  The chairman further said the WAPDA has devised a two-pronged strategy for optimal utilisation of hydropower resources. 

“Under the strategy, the authority is not only initiating new hydropower projects but also rehabilitating and upgrading its existing stations to maximise the ratio of environmentally-friendly and low-cost hydel power in the national grid,” the WAPDA chief said. 

The approved PC-I cost of the project is Rs52.224 billion. Meanwhile, the chairman also visited Khaliq Abad in the suburban area of Mirpur to check the reservoir rim, where project authorities have recently carried out rehabilitation work.

The Mangla refurbishment project will increase the generation capacity of Mangla Hydel Power Station from 1,000MW to 1,310MW, an increase of 310MW, the official said. The existing Mangla Hydel Power Station has 10 generating units, having capacity of 100MW each with a useful life of 30 years extendable up to 35 years.

The first unit was commissioned in 1967. Despite completion of their useful life long ago, all units at Mangla have still been working efficiently and generating electricity in accordance with their installed capacity due to the operational skills of the engineers, technical personnel, and effective maintenance of these units. 

In order to benefit from additional 2.88 million acres feet (MAF) of water and 40 feet additional water head available with completion of Mangla Dam Raising Project in 2009, the WAPDA planned to refurbish the existing Mangla Hydel Power Station. 

Besides, the use of latest technology was also one of the factors to make plans for optimising generation capacity of Mangla Hydel Power Station. With the use of the latest technology, the quantum of water, which generates 1,000MW, will be sufficient to generate 1,310MW. 

The WAPDA completed the feasibility study of Mangla Hydel Power Station refurbishment project in 2011. The project will be implemented in various phases, wherein the generating units will be refurbished by closing down one tunnel (two generating units) at a time. First two units will be refurbished by 2018, the next two by 2019 and the other two by 2020, the official said. By the year 2022, all the 10 units will be refurbished to complete Mangla refurbishment project.