Golen Gol project starts electricity generation

Chitral to start receiving supply, surplus to be added to national grid

LAHORE: The Golen Gol hydropower project started electricity generation on Wednesday, marking another landmark as Pakistan aggressively adds power to the national grid to eliminate load-shedding.

Due to the project, Chitral has now started receiving much-needed electricity on a trial basis, which is a significant step towards providing a stable supply of electricity to the city and adjacent areas.

The prime minister will formally inaugurate the project during the first week of February. Only the first unit of 36MW was put into operation on Wednesday, which would provide electricity three times more than the needs of Chitral city. The surplus energy will be added to the national grid.

During his visit to the project site, Wapda Chairman Muzammil Hussain congratulated the project authorities and expressed hope that the power project will usher in a new era of progress and prosperity. The chairman was of the view that it will stabilise the economy by providing low-cost and environment-friendly electricity to the national grid.

The project has been constructed on Golen Gol - a tributary of River Mastuj - near Chitral. The installed generation capacity of the project is 108MW with three generating units - each of them with a capacity of 36MW.

The first unit has been completed, while the second and the third unit will be commissioned in March and May 2018, respectively. The project will provide 436 million units of electricity to the national grid every year. Benefits of the project have been estimated at Rs3.7 billion per annum.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 25^th, 2018.

Like Business on Facebook, follow @TribuneBiz on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.