Pakistan’s Neelum Jhelum hydropower plant to resume generation by end July

• 1 year, 4 months ago (2023-07-17)
• David Flin

Asia 892 Hydropower 131

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Pakistan’s 969 MW Neelum Jhelum (NJ) hydropower plant is scheduled to resume power generation at the end of July as restoration work on the tail race tunnel nears completion.

NJ is a run-of-river hydropower plant that started operation in April 2018, but power generation was suspended in 2022 as a result of the collapse of part of its tail race tunnel. The collapsed area has been repaired, and the rest of the affected portions of the 3.5 km long tunnel has been strengthened with lattice girder, rock bolting, and shotcrete.

Sweeping and cleaning of the tail race tunnel will commence, to be followed by pressurisation (filling the tail race tunnel with water), and then the restart of electricity generation.

Lt Gen (retired) Sajjad Ghani, Chairman Engineer of the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), has reviewed the restoration work and pronounced the plant ready to resume operations.