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https://steelguru.com/power/ge-to-refurbish-mangla-power-station-by-2023/511191
General Electric is expecting to finish refurbishing work on 1,000 megawatts of Mangla hydropower plants within the next five years to bring a 35 percent increase in the station’s production capacity, the company’s executive said.
Sarim Sheikh, chief executive officer of GE Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan said the station’s refurbishing would be completed by 2023 with a cost of around Rs15 billion. “After completion, the plants would be able to generate 35 percent more electricity using same amount of water.”
The project is jointly funded by a French development agency and the United States Agency for International Development.
The project is a major component of the Water and Power Development Authority’s (Wapda) plan of adding low-cost hydropower generation to overcome shortage of electricity and maximise share of hydropower in electricity grid.
Mangla power station, located in Kashmir, has an installed capacity of 1,000MW. The existing 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. All units at Mangla have efficiently been working and generating electricity since then in accordance with their installed capacity despite completion of their useful life long ago.
The Wapda planned to refurbish the existing Mangla hydropower station to benefit from additional 2.88 million acres feet of water and 40 feet additional water head available with completion of Mangla dam raising project in 2009.
Sheikh said the modern technology is being used to optimise generation capacity of Mangla hydropower station. “The quantum of water, which generates 1,000MW, will be sufficient to generate over 1,300MW.”
He said GE is expanding its footprints in hydropower, coal, gas and renewable generation across the country. GE is expected to power 40 percent of the country’s overall electricity generation by 2019.
The company’s executive added that “Pakistan’s generation capacity will stand at around 35,000MW by 2019; of which 14,000MW would be generated through GE equipment.”
A number of hydropower plants were completed or commissioned in 2016 including Ranolia (17 MW), Daral Khwar (37 MW) and Machai (2.6 MW), all located in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Several micro hydropower projects were also installed as part of an initiative led by the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with the support of the Asian Development Bank, to install some 1,000 micro plants. Expected to have a total installed capacity of 100 MW, these micro projects are designed to support rural, off-grid communities by providing affordable and reliable electricity.
Numerous projects are currently under planning and construction in the private sector, overseen by the Private Power & Infrastructure Board, including Karot (720 MW), Suki (870 MW) and Kohala (1,124 MW). These projects are part of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) – a collection of infrastructure projects supported by the Chinese Government to strengthen Pakistan’s economy and enhance the economic connectivity between both countries.
The run-of-river Patrind hydropower project is another being led by the private sector, a Korean consortium including Star Hydro Power, K-water and Daewoo Engineering & Construction Company.
Scheduled for completion in 2017, the project has also received loans from the Islamic Development Bank, International Finance Corporation, Asian Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of Korea.
The regulatory regime for private sector investors includes substantial incentives such as generous return on equity, tax concessions and hydrological risk cover.
Current public sector projects under construction and overseen by WAPDA include Golen Gol (106 MW), Neelum-Jhelum (969 MW), Dasu (4,320 MW) and the extension of the Tarbela plant.
The construction on the fourth extension of the 3,478 MW Tarbela hydropower plant located on the Indus River continues, with completion likely in 2017. The Tarbela Dam is the largest earth-filled dam in the world, and the fourth extension to the hydropower plant will lift its installed capacity to 4,888 MW. The World Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank have also announced USD 720 million in co-financing to help fund the fifth extension to the plant, which will add a further 1,140 MW in capacity.
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