ISLAMABAD: The rehabilitation of 55-year old Warsak Hydroelectric Power Station will help regain its reduced generation capacity from 193 megawatt to 243 MW and achieve another life cycle of 30 to 40 years.
Official sources told APP here Tuesday the project aims at overcoming the aging problems and regaining the lost generation capacity of 50 MW with reliable annual energy generation of 1.144 billion units.
The rehabilitation project would be completed in seven years with an estimated cost of Rs 22.254 billion. KfW of Germany and AFD of France were providing 40 million Euro each, while 50 million Euros were being provided by European Investment Bank (EIB) for the project, they said.
Feasibility studies, detailed engineering design and tender documents have already been completed, while the process to award the construction contract was being initiated.
The second Rehabilitation Project of Warsak Hydroelectric Power Station is a component of the two-pronged strategy being implemented by WAPDA for optimal utilisation of the water resource.
Besides constructing new hydropower projects, rehabilitation and up-gradation of the old hydel power stations are also being carried out under the strategy to help inject low-cost hydel electricity to the National Grid.
It is pertinent to mention that Warsak Hydel Power Station is located on River Kabul at about 30 kilometers in North-West of Peshawar. The project, financed by the Canadian Government, was completed under Colombo Plan in two phases. The first phase completed in 1960 consisted of construction of dam, irrigation tunnels, installation of four power generating units with cumulative capacity of 160 MW (each of 40 MW) and 132 KV transmission system.
Two additional generating units each of 41.48 MW capacity were added during 1980-81 in the second phase. The total installed capacity of the power station thus became nearly 243 MW.
After completing about 55 years, the generating units of the power house have deteriorated despite extensive repair and maintenance due to heavy sediments in the water of River Kabul. The First Rehabilitation Project was executed during 1996-2006 to stable civil structures and regain the lost generation capacity.
