Capacity of Chitral Hydel Power station to be enhanced

ISLAMABAD: The capacity enhancement of Chitral Hydel Power Station would be enhanced from one Mega Watt To 5 MW to meet the growing demand of Chitral City and adjoining areas as 38GW per hour additional electricity would be available for the area.

According to official documents, in order to transport the additional electricity, a new 132 KV Jutalist Grid will be constructed by Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESC).

The 132 KV double circuit transmission line having a length of 15 kilometres as in/out arrangement has been proposed in the PC-1 with two power transformers at Power House, one for each generating unit, having a capacity of 7.5 MVA and 11/132 KV transformation ratio.

The document added that the AFDs' financing for the project has been finalized and approved by their board, however the Credit Facility Agreement is yet to be signed.

The present status of the project shows that the PC-1 of the project amounting to Rs2188.835 million has been approved by the Ministry of Planning, Development and Reforms, while hiring of consultancy services for detailed engineering design, preparation of tenders documents and construction supervision for implementation is in progress and the project is scheduled to be constructed within three years.

The existing 1 MW Chitral Hydel Power Station is located at the right bank of Lutkho River, 5 Km upstream of Chitral City.

The project was commissioned in 1975 by diverting the flows of Lutkho River through 3.72 Km long channel and installing 2 units of 200 KW and 2 units of 300 KW each.

The power generated from Chitral Hydel Power Station is supplied to Chitral City through 11 KV Transmission Line.

The power demand in Chitral area has now been increased and there is a dire need for upgrading the capacity of existing Hydel Power Station at Chitral.

In the initial construction phase of project, limited flows of Lutkho River were diverted to Power Channel for generation of 1 MW only.

However the river has abundant flows which can be utilized for power generation by constructing a small diversion weir, remodelling of power channel and fore bay and installation of new penstocks and additional units.

It is estimated that the power generation could be enhanced up to 5 MW.