Islamabad March 30 2022: The Karot Hydropower Project, the first hydropower project under China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) achieved a major milestone towards the commercial operation date (COD) as it successfully hoisted its 4th and final rotor at the powerhouse.
The rotor is an important component used for the excitation function, which is essential to power generation. This step is another major milestone toward the COD of first CPEC Hydro Power Project which is expected to be achieved in June 2022.
Hydropower COD will help to reduce the electricity shortfall, which is expected to occur due to higher Residual Furnace oil prices and lower gas availability as skyrocket prices of RLNG reduce country’s affordability and some of the RLNG suppliers default on their commitments.
Each unit can produce 180MW of Power and the total hydropower potential of Karot HPP is 720MW which is expected to achieve commercial operation by June 2022, according to a press release issued here on Wednesday.
The Karot Hydropower project, located at a distance of about 76 Km from Islamabad have total Installed capacity of Karot HPP is 720 MW with an annual electricity generation of 3,206 Gwh. The project is equipped with four state of art Francis turbines and will fulfill the needs of five million consumers throughout Pakistan.
Since the groundbreaking of the project in April, 2016, the Chinese and Pakistani engineers and workers at the project have jointly overcome different challenges including the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, a series of achievements have been made such as the river closure, reservoir impoundment, completion of transmission line, lifting of the first, second and third rotor, etc.
