LAHORE, March 9: The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has released $6.66 million to Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) for repair and rehabilitation of Tarbela Power Station. The US had signed an agreement with Wapda to provide a financial assistance amounting to $16.5 million for Tarbela Power Station. The assistance would be utilised for repair and rehabilitation of 1, 3 and 4 units of power house.

Rehabilitation of the three units will add another 60MW to the installed capacity of Tarbela power house, which is 3,478MW at present. The major activities of rehabilitation work include replacement of class-B stator winding of the three units with superior class-F insulation winding.

With the replacement of winding, the capability of unit 4 will increase by 108MW under over-load condition. Similarly after the repair, the units 1 and 3 each with a capacity of 175MW, would provide additional 40MW to the national grid. The repair and rehabilitation work on Tarbela Power Station, undertaken with the US financing, is expected to be completed by the end of 2011.

In addition to constructing new hydropower projects, Wapda has also undertaken rehabilitation of the electro-mechanical equipment of its aged power houses, including Warsak, Tarbela, Mangla, Jabban, Renala etc. The US is also providing $66 million for completion of Gomal Zam Dam in FATA and Satpara Dam in Gilgit-Baltistan.