ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) hydel power stations delivered around 4.434 billion units of low-cost hydel electricity to the National Grid in July, 2015.
This is the highest-ever generation of hydel electricity in one month, and constitutes about 41 percent of the total electricity, the country’s system received from all sources.
Official sources told to a news agency here that the hydel electricity delivered to the National Grid during last month registered an increase of 711 million units as compared with 3.723 billion units of hydel electricity generated in July last year 2014, thus, showing 19.1 percent increase in hydel generation.
This additional contribution of hydel electricity by Wapda not only helped minimize load-shedding in the country during July but also lower power tariff.
In addition to the favourable hydrological conditions, effective operation and consistent maintenance of the hydel power stations are the main contributing factors behind this record hydel generation, the meeting noted with utmost satisfaction.
Talking to APP, they said that despite aging factor, Wapda hydel power stations are still capable to be run at their maximum generation capacities. In high water months, Tarbela and Mangla are capable of delivering electricity more than their installed capacities. During July this year, Tarbela generated up to 3,606 megawatt (MW) against its installed capacity of 3,478MW, while Mangla up to 1,115MW against its installed capacity of 1,000MW.
It is pertinent to mention that Pakistan inherited two hydel power stations with cumulative generation capacity of only 10.7MW at the time of independence in 1947 namely Sir Ganga Ram Hydel Power Station of 1.1MW commissioned in 1925 and Malakand Hydel Power Station of 9.6MW commissioned in 1937. With WAPDA established in 1958, the hydel generation capacity has so far risen to 6902 MW, which is about one-third of the total system.
WPADA contributes about 32 billion units of low-cost hydel electricity on the average to the National Grid every year.
