The year 2020 proved to be an exceptional year for the water and hydropowersectors of Pakistan. The Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA)succeeded in achieving significant milestones in the water and hydropowersectors this year.
Besides generating the highest-ever low-cost hydel electricity, WAPDA alsoinitiated construction work on the long-delayed multi-purpose Diamer BashaDam Project in 2020.——————————
As per the details, WAPDA hydel generation continued to surge during 2020too. As many as 22 hydel power stations owned and operated by WAPDA acrossthe country generated 38.3 billion units, which is the highest-evergeneration in a year.
This record generation includes 12.08 billion units from Tarbela, 4.98billion units from Tarbela 4th Extension, 6.48 billion units from GhaziBarotha, 5.76 billion units from Mangla, 4.93 billion units from NeelumJhelum, and 4.07 billion units from the rest of the hydel power stations.
WAPDA generated additional 3.8 billion units through hydel in 2020 comparedto 2019, benefitting the country with about Rs. 53.2 billion. If a thermalsource had produced this electricity, it would have cost Rs 53.2 billion tothe national exchequer.
Tackling the obstacles in the implementation of the project, WAPDA startedthe construction of Diamer Basha Dam in July this year. The Dam is a vitalproject for water, food, and energy security of the country with grosswater storage of 8.1 million acre-feet (MAF), live water storage of 6.4MAF, and power generation of 4,500 megawatts (MW).——————————
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Despite COVID-19, the construction work continued satisfactorily on MohmandDam during 2020. WAPDA initiated the project in May 2019. With thecompletion of Mohmand, Diamer Basha, Dasu, and several other on-goingprojects from 2024 to 2029, hydel power generation will increase from theexisting 9,389 MW to about 20500 MW, which is more than double the currentgeneration capacity.
Similarly, live water storage capacity in the country will also increasefrom the existing 15.1 MAF to 23.4 MAF with an addition of 8.3 MAF.
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