Daily Times

The World Bank is all praise for successful implementation and effective operation of the 1410-MW Tarbela 4th extension hydropower project, completed in 2018 in a phased manner.

This has been acknowledged in the World Bank implementation support mission aide memoire, recently shared with the Ministry of Water Resources, Ministry of Energy – Power Division and Economic Affairs Division, Government of Pakistan, according to a Wapda spokesman, here on Tuesday.

A seven-member World Bank mission was conducted from December 1 to 8, 2020 to review the status of implementation of Tarbela 4th extension hydropower project. The mission comprised of energy specialist and mission leader, senior procurement specialist, advisor, social development specialist, environment specialist, operations officer and programme coordinator. Highlighting the electricity generation and financial benefits of Tarbela 4th extension project since commissioning, the World Bank aide memoire says: “Over 12,000 gigawatt-hours (GWh) have been generated since commissioning in 2018. The value of the electricity generated for the country is over US$1,560 million, using a value of US cents 13/kilo watt-hour (kWh), which is the cost of generation from liquified natural gas (LNG) plants. The benefit is about twice the capital cost of the project”.

The World Bank aide memoire also appreciated success of Tarbela 4th extension hydropower project saying, “The project has been very successful, starting generation on time, and with a cost about 10 per cent less than the budget estimated at the time of approval by the Bank. This is very rare for hydropower projects worldwide.”