Pakistan’s Neelum-Jhelum hydropower plant shut down due to safety concerns

• 6 months ago (2024-05-03)
• David Flin

Asia 892 Hydropower 131

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The Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) of Pakistan has announced that the 969 MW Neelum-Jhelum hydropower plant has been completely shut down for inspection.

This follows an operational issue detected a month ago, which resulted in significant pressure fluctuations in the project’s headrace tunnel. A change in the pressure was observed on April 2, and the generation output was reduced to 530 MW on April 6 to enable pressure fluctuations to be monitored.

The plant operated smoothly at this reduced capacity until April 29, when further instability in tunnel pressure required a further reduction in power generation. A further change in headrace tunnel pressure was observed, and Wapda shut the plant down on May 1 to enable physical inspection of the tunnel to identify the source of the problem.