LAHORE: The Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) awarded the contract of civil works worth Rs.936.29 million through international competitive bidding for second rehabilitation of Warsak Hydroelectric Power Station to Technicon Enterprises.
The contract was signed in a ceremony held here at WAPDA House. General Manager (Hydel) Development Nadeem Iqbal and Chief Executive Officer Iqbal Yunas signed the contract on behalf of WAPDA and Technicon Enterprises respectively. WAPDA Member (Power) Jamil Akhtar and other senior officers of WAPDA were also present on the occasion.
The WAPDA has been vigorously implementing a least-cost energy generation plan to add low-priced hydel electricity to the system. In addition to constructing new projects, the WAPDA has also been rehabilitating and up-grading its aging hydel power stations, including the Warsak, under the plan.
The WAPDA is executing the second rehabilitation project of Warsak Hydel Power Station to regain its generation capacity which has decreased to 193 MW from 243 MW due to aging factor of the electro-mechanical equipment. The rehabilitation works are planned to be carried out with an approved PC-I cost of Rs.22.25 billion with the objective to overcome the aging problems, regain the capacity loss of 50 MW with reliable annual energy generation of 1.14 billion units, upgrade and modernize the old system and achieve another life cycle of 30 to 40 years.
It is pertinent to mention that Warsak is the first-ever main hydropower project executed in Pakistan after independence. The first phase of the Warsak Dam and Hydel Power Station was completed in 1960-61 consisting of the dam, irrigation tunnels, four generating units with a cumulative capacity of 160 MW, switchyard and transmission line.
In the second phase, two more generating units of about 83 MW were added in 1980-81 to raise the installed capacity of the hydel power station to 243 MW. The first rehabilitation was carried out during 1996-2006 to stabilize the civil structure and recover lost generation of about 70 MW.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021