Refurbishment and upgradation: Wapda wants to shut down Mangla tunnel for 6 months

ISLAMABAD: Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) is to shut down tunnel-2 of Mangla power station for six months for refurbishment and upgradation of units three and four, well informed sources in Ministry of Water Resources told Business Recorder.

The Ministry of Water and Resources sent a reminder to Power Division on February 28, 2022 as a follow up of its previous letter written on February 16, 2022.

According to Wapda, it is undertaking the rehabilitation works of the generating units of Mangla Power Station with the financing of USAID grant ($150 million) and AFD France loan (E 90 million) to enhance the capacity from 1,000 to 1,310 MW to provide consistent power to national grid for another 30 to 35-year life cycle by utilizing the additional head and water storage in post-Mangla Dam raising scenario.

PC-I was approved by ECNEC on December 31, 2013.Contract for package I & VI (units 1-6) was awarded to M/s G.E Hydro France on August 29, 2016 and first two units were handed over to the contractor in November,2017.

According to the contract agreement, refurbishment of units 3 & 4 will be carried out in next phase when refurbishment works on units 5 & 6 have been completed and units are ready for commercial operation. Unit 6 was synchronized with the system after refurbishment on October 10, 2021.Sequence tests are being carried out on unit No. 6. After successful completion of testing, unit 6 was scheduled to be available for commercial operation tentatively by mid-February 2022. Similarly, Unit No. 5 has also completed mechanical testing and was expected to complete electrical & load testing during Feb 2022.

Wapda argues that once the milestone of refurbishment of first two units (5 & 6) is achieved, the project will move to the next phase, the refurbishment of next two units (3 & 4) and for this tunnel No. 2 will to shut down for 18 months (14 months contract period + 4 months contingency).

Wapda approached System Operator, GM (SO) NPCC, for soliciting shutdown on tunnel No. 2 from February 1, 2022 to August 31, 2023 or from subsequent date of availing this shut down for a period of 18 months, to undertake refurbishment activities of units 3 & 4.

GM (SO) NPCC maintains that as the shutdown of tunnel No. 2 (units 3 & 4) for the period of 18 months has technical and financial repercussions; therefore, concurrence of Ministry of Energy (Power Division) is required.

Wapda maintains that shutdown of tunnel-2 (units 3 & 4) will result in outage of 200 MW power supply, whereas availability of units 5 & 6 will ensure additional 270 MW after refurbishment; hence, the resultant outage during peak time would be only 130 MW.

Wapda has requested the Water Resources Ministry that the matter be taken up with the Ministry of Energy (Power) Division for obtaining concurrence regarding shutdown of tunnel No.2 of Mangla Power Station for six months (180 days) or from subsequent date of availing this shut down for a period of 18 months to carry out refurbishment works of Units 3 & 4 in light of the refurbishment works sequential arrangement (2 units at a time) approved as part of PC-I by ECNEC.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022