ChashNuPP-1 to contribute 300 MW power from today

[LahoreEstate]

ISLAMABAD: The Chashma Nuclear Power Plant (ChashNuPP-1) after remaining shut for about five and half months for maintenance and up-gradation will come on stream on Friday at 12 noon and contribute 300 MW of electricity to the national grid.

“This 300 MW of electricity will be available to Pepco for 24 hours a day,” a senior official at the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) has said. The official said synchronisation process was kicked off on Jan 21 which will be completed by 12 noon on Friday and 300 MW nuclear power will become part of the energy mix in the national grid.

It is imperative to bring the nuclear and Pepco’s energy mix at one frequency prior to formally restoring the nuclear power to the national grid. During the five-and-a-half month period, PAEC’s experts modified the design of the ChashNuPP-1 in such a way that the reliability of the nuclear electricity generation has increased from 290 days to 325 days a year.

When contacted, Pepco spokesman Tahir Basharat Cheema said Chashma plant-1 will contribute 300 MW to the national grid from Friday after about more than five months. He said the hydro generation has increased to some extent because of increased water outflows of 15,000 cusecs per day from Tarbela dam, and from Mangla dam the water releases, which were at zero at present, will also increase by Jan 26.

At present, Pepco is harnessing 400 MW from Tarbela dam and 400 MW from Ghazi Barotha hydropower project. When the water release from Mangla dam on Jan 26-27 increases, power crisis will be subsided to a large extent, as canal closures period will end by Jan 31. Cheema said Pepco has started providing electricity relief to 400 agriculture load-dominated 11 kV feeders so that farmers could irrigate their wheat crop.

http://thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=19832