The first unit of the Neelum Jhelum hydropower project in Pakistan has successfully completed a reliability test, paving the way for its commercial operation.
The first generating unit of the 969MW project was synchronized with the system on April 9. The second unit was scheduled in May, however, WAPDA succeeded in commissioning this unit for trial generation ahead of schedule and synchronized it with the National Grid on April 22. Both generating units have provided around 20 million units of electricity to the National Grid during their test run.
The hydropower project – located in Azad Jammu and Kashmir – was officially inaugurated by Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in Mid April. Completed at cost of around $5 billion, the power project comprises four units with generation capacity of 242.25MW each.
Neelum Jhelum Hydropower Company is the executing agency of the project on behalf of WAPDA and the government of Pakistan.
The project is a joint venture of five international and national firms as Neelum Jhelum Consultants including Norplan, Stantec, National Engineering Services Pakistan, Associated Consulting Engineers, and National Development Consultants.
The project was executed by a Chinese consortium including China Gezhouba Group Company and China Machinery Engineering Company.
