Allai Khwar project to start generating 121 MW in March

ISLAMABAD: The 121 MW Allai Khwar Hydropower project has been completed and will start commercial generation in March.

Official sources told APP here Wednesday that the project has already been put on mechanical and would start electricity generation on trial basis by the end of February.

Allai Khwar Hydropower Project has been constructed on Allai Khwar, a tributary of Indus River in district Battagram of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Main components of the project include 88-meter long and 51-meter high concrete dam, the 2.3-kilometer long steel-lined tunnel, power house comprising two generating units of 61.5 MW each, at record design head of 687 meter and a switchyard.

They said that the environment-friendly Allai Khwar Hydropower Project would generate 560 million units of low-cost hydel electricity per annum, resulting in saving million of dollars on the corresponding generation of costly thermal energy.

The annual benefits of the project was estimated about Rs.4.5 billion.

Allai Khwar is the second of the three high-head hydropower projects, which has gone operational. The other two include the 72 MW-Khan Khwar and the 130 MW-Duber Khwar hydropower projects.

The Khan Khwar Hydropower Project has already been completed in November 2010 while the third Duber Khwar Hydropower Project is also near to completion.

Allai Khwar Hydropower Project is a part of least-cost energy generation plan of WAPDA being executed on priority to cope with the increasing needs of electricity and water in the country.

Under the plan, WAPDA is working on 26 large and medium-sized projects with cumulative electricity generation capacity of 21,000 MW and water storage capacity of 13 million acre feet (MAF). Of these projects, six multipurpose schemes with power generation capacity of over 400 MW and water storage capacity of 1.23 MAF will be completed in next two three months.