LAHORE: The second unit of the 969MW Nee­lum Jhelum Hydropower Plant (NJHP) resumed power generating operation on a trial basis on Tuesday after engineers rectified some technical faults in it.

Earlier, this unit (Unit No 4) was put into operation in April, injecting more than 1.3 million units of electricity to the national grid during the test run. However, during various tests ahead of commercial operation, the unit developed some technical issues.

“As per contractual requirement, this unit will be initially on a three-day and thereafter on a 30-day reliability run test period and will continuously generate power to its maximum capacity for the system,” said a spokesperson for the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda).

He said the NJHP’s first unit, which was put on a 30-day reliability period on May 18, had successfully completed the tests. During this period, the unit continuously provided electricity to its maximum capacity of 242.25MW to the national grid, injecting more than 200 million units of electricity to the system. Subsequent to the completion of reliability test, the first unit would now be shut down for making minor adjustments before taking over this unit by Wapda.

The process, which is a contractual obligation, may take about 10 days to complete. Thereafter, the contribution of the NJHP (from both the first and second units) to the national grid will be doubled ­— from 242.25MW to 484.50MW.

“The work on the project is being completed according to the timelines. Similarly, the units are passing through the required tests in accordance with the contractual obligations,” the Wapda spokesperson claimed.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2018