Mangla Hydel Power Station Generation Capacity Enhanced by 70MW

The Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) has successfully commissioned generating units No. 5 and No. 6 of the Mangla Hydel Power Station which was recently refurbished with the financial support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

With the refurbishment, the installed generation capacity of each unit has increased to 135 (megawatts) MW from 100 MW, with a cumulative increase of 70 MW from 200 to 270 MW.

USAID Mission Director, Julie A. Koenen, and her team witnessed the commissioning of the two units during her visit to Mangla Hydel Power Station today. She also unveiled a plaque to mark the commissioning of the refurbished Units No. 5 and No. 6.

Member WAPDA (Power), Jamil Akhtar; Project Director Mangla Dam Refurbishment; and others were also present.

Koenen spoke at the event and remarked, “Today, the Mangla Dam rehabilitation work builds upon the foundational partnership of the original construction. USAID is proud of our enduring efforts with WAPDA to extend Mangla Dam’s useful service as a reliable source of clean energy and irrigation water”.

“When Mangla Dam was built, it was one of the largest earth-filled dams in the world. Not only is it an impressive achievement in engineering, but it is also an excellent example of long-lasting US-Pakistan friendship and economic cooperation,” she said.

Jamil Akhtar thanked USAID for its continued support for Pakistan’s power sector and specifically for the implementation of the Mangla Refurbishment Project. Elaborating on the two-pronged strategy for optimal utilization of hydropower resources, he said that the WAPDA has started new hydropower projects besides rehabilitating and upgrading its existing hydel power stations, including Mangla, to maximize the ratio of environment-friendly and low-cost hydel electricity in the national grid.

In view of the aging of the generating equipment and the availability of additional water due to the raised Mangla Dam, the WAPDA is implementing the Mangla Refurbishment Project with an approved PC-I cost of Rs. 52.224 billion. USAID is providing a grant of $150 million and the balance is being arranged by the WAPDA through loans and from its own resources.

Upon its completion, the Mangla Refurbishment Project will enhance the generation capacity of the existing Mangla Hydel Power Station from 1,000 MW to 1,310 MW, to register an increase of 310 MW. Mangla Hydel Power Station’s average annual generation will also increase from five billion units to 6.5 billion units. The refurbishment works have been divided into 11 different packages that are being implemented in various phases by closing down one tunnel (two generating units) at a time.

The installation of the first four generating units — Units No. 1  to No. 4 at Mangla Hydel Power Station, each with a generation capacity of 100 MW — was completed in 1967. Units No. 5 and No. 6 were installed in 1974, and Units No. 7 and No. 8 were installed in 1981. The power station then attained its maximum generation capacity of 1,000 MW in 1994 with the addition of Units No. 9 and No. 10.

Faiz Paracha is a seasoned broadcast journalist with over 15 years’ experience in reporting and e...



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