Neelum-Jhelum power project: COD of unit-4 to be attained in December

ISLAMABAD: The Commercial Operation Date (COD) of Rs503 billion Neelum-Jhelum hydropower project will now complete in December this year, as the fourth unit of 242.25MW has been dismantled again.

The existing parts of the unit are being replaced and this process will be completed by mid of November. Chinese experts from Harbin city are installing new spare parts. The rotor of the unit got damaged at the very outset of making the project operational.

The unit-4 stopped functioning when the rubber ring of turbine got leaked. The unit-4 was then repaired and made operational, but the top management of the project refused to extend to the contractor the taking over certificate (TOC) unless genuine parts were replaced.

Chief Executive Officer of Neelum- Jhelum Hydropower Company Limited (NJHPCL) Brig (Retd) Mohammad Zareen said: “Yes, unit-4 has been dismantled and the required spare parts are being replaced by the Chinese team that came from Herbin city of China.

He said the process will take more than a week and after that the unit will start operating. He said the same unit 4 had already completed its reliability period. “And more importantly, the COD of unity-4 will also be attained in December.”

The project, Mr Zareen said, has 4 units with each having the capacity to generate 242.25MW out of which the management has achieved the CODs of three units. Once the COD of the whole project is achieved, the government will withdraw the Neelum-Jhelum surcharge of Re0.10 per unit being charged from the end consumers in the electricity bills. Mr Zareen said so far the project had generated 1.8 billion electricity units. To a question, he said 280 cumecs water is needed to run the four turbines to generate 969 MW of the project.

The water flow has now dwindled in Neelum river to 90 cumecs and in the month of January the water flows will further go down to 36 cumecs. The water flows start improving from February and till April they will increase to 280 cumecs and from April to August, the project will be in a position to generate 969MW power for five months a year.

In the remaining months, water is stored in the dam and during peak demand hours the project generates the maximum electricity.

The log history of the project reveals that the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) in 2002 approved the project at the cost of Rs84.502 billion. The cost scaled up to Rs277.502 billion which the Ecnec approved in 2012 and then its cost again surged up to Rs404.331 billion in 2015. And after that it was again hiked to Rs500.343 billion.

In 2002, the cost of the project was Rs84 billion but after the 2005 earthquake, the project’s design had to be modified keeping in view the fault lines passing through the project site and the scope of the project also increased.

Furthermore, due to the rising value of dollar the cost of the project had escalated to over Rs277 billion. And then the cost of project was revised upward by 86 percent to Rs404 billion mainly because of the inclusion of duties, taxes which further increased up to Rs503.343 billion because of the inclusion of IDC (interests during cost) till completion of the project and the cost of the consultant.