HARIPUR, Aug 2: Because of regular rain in the catchment areas of Tarbela Dam, water table at the reservoir is fast reaching its maximum conservation level, facilitating generation of 202MW more electricity than the project’s rated capacity.

Informed sources told Dawn here on Thursday said that with the onset of monsoon, the dam’s catchment areas had been constantly receiving rain. Snow melting on hilltops in the northern region had also increased inflow in the lake, they said.

On Thursday, water level at the reservoir was 1,533 feet – just 17 feet from the maximum conservation level of 1,550ft. Inflow was recorded at 198,600 cusecs and outflow through the power house was 123,400 cusecs and through the auxiliary spillway 47,100 cusecs.

The sources said electricity production was 3,680MW against last year’s production of 3,600MW on this day. They said Tarbela’s electricity production was 62 per cent of the total hydel production and its share in the gross production of electricity in the country, including the share of Independent Power Producers, was 25 per cent.

The sources once Wapda’s long pending project of installing new power generating units and flushing surplus water of Tarbela Dam out of tunnel-4 was implemented, the facility could produce 1,000MW extra electricity.