LAHORE: The Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) has restored the damaged power generating unit at the Gomal Zam Hydel Power Station, synchronizing it successfully with the national grid.
According to the Wapda spokesperson, with Unit No.1, becoming fully functional, the hydel power station has been restored to the original installed generation capacity of 17.4 MW, benefiting the people living in far-flung areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The power station was running on half of its installed capacity i.e. 8.7 MW for the last eight years.
It is pertinent to mention that the Gomal Zam Hydel Power Station has two generating units of 8.7 MW each, with an annual generation capacity of 90.9 million units. The facility is connected to the national grid through 132 KV South Waziristan-Tank transmission line.
Both units became non-operational in October 2016 due to a technical fault rendering the reverse power protection relay inoperative.
The Wapda managed to restore Unit No. 2 with its in-house expertise and own resources in June 2018. However, Unit No.1 could not be restored due to the nature of the damage.
Primarily, it was law and order situation in the area, which hampered restoration works for about 10 years. The rehabilitation works, awarded to a joint venture at a cost of Rs359.5 million, started on April 5, 2026, which were successfully completed in 80 days on Thursday, June 25.
The Gomal Zam Hydel Power Station is a component of Gomal Zam Dam, which is a multi-purpose project, designed to ensure water availability for irrigated agriculture, flood mitigation and affordable electricity generation.
Since its completion in 2013, it has been playing a key role in poverty alleviation in the area. Besides having an installed power generation capacity of 17.4 MW, the project has a gross water storage capacity of 1.14 million acre feet to irrigate 191,139 acres of land.
