Tarbela fourth extension hydropower project: World Bank, IPOE laud successful completion, effective operation

The World Bank and the International Panel of Experts (IPOE) have appreciated the successful completion and effective operation of the 1410MW - Tarbela 4th Extension Hydropower Project, commissioned in 2018 in a phased manner. The IPOE and the World Bank expressed these views during a meeting with Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) Chairman Lt Gen Muzammil Hussain (Retd).
The meeting was held on Thursday after a 4-day detailed visit of the IPOE to the project. In addition to the IPOE comprising world known professionals namely Aslam Rasheed, Chairman IPOE; William A Moler, Geological and Rock Mechanics Specialist; Brain Edward Sadden, Construction Specialist and Carlos A. Jaramillo, Tunneling Expert, World Bank Team Leader Rikard Liden, World Bank Consultant Masood Ahmed, WAPDA Member (Power), Member (Finance), Advisor (Projects) WAPDA, the Project Authorities and the Project Consultants also attended the meeting.
The IPOE expressed satisfaction over the functioning of various components of Tarbela 4th Extension Hydropower Project including civil works and electro-mechanical equipments. It was appreciated that the project is functioning as per the designed specification. The IPOE also noted it with satisfaction that the turbine efficiency of the Project was more than the efficiency envisaged during the model testing of the turbines. Turbine efficiency test was carried out in November 2018 under the supervision of International Expert, hired for the purpose.
Since its commissioning in March 2018, Tarbela 4th Extension Hydropower Project has so far contributed 1.471 billion units of low-cost hydel electricity to the National Grid despite low flows of water this year. Tarbela 4th Extension Hydropower Project is complete in all respect and the annual energy generation from the project is expected to achieve planned 3.84 billion units during the year 2019, subject to availability of water.
The 1410MW - Tarbela 4th Extension Hydropower Project has been constructed on Tunnel No 4 of Tarbela Dam. The project has three generating units, each of them having capacity of 470 MW. The project will provide 3.84 billion units of electricity on the average to the National Grid per annum. Annual benefits of the project have been estimated at Rs 30 billion. With completion of Tarbela 4th Extension Hydropower Project, the installed capacity of Tarbela Hydel Power Station has increased from 3478MW to 4888MW.