Ghazi-Barotha Hydropower Project () is a 1,450 MW

run-of-the-river Run-of-river hydroelectricity (ROR) or run-of-the-river hydroelectricity is a type of hydroelectric generation plant whereby little or no water storage is provided. Run-of-the-river power plants may have no water storage at all or a limited amou ...

hydropower Hydropower (from Ancient Greek -, "water"), also known as water power or water energy, is the use of falling or fast-running water to Electricity generation, produce electricity or to power machines. This is achieved by energy transformation, ...

project on the

Indus River The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayas, Himalayan river of South Asia, South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in the Western Tibet region of China, flows northw ...

in Pakistan. It is located about west of

Attock Attock ( Punjabi, ), formerly known as Campbellpur (Punjabi, ), is a city in Punjab, Pakistan, not far from the country's capital Islamabad. It is the headquarters of the Attock District and is 36th largest city in the Punjab and 61st largest c ...

in the

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

province. Construction of the project began in 1995. It consists of five generators, each possessing a maximum power generation capacity of 290 MW. The inauguration of the plant took place on 19 August 2003, presided over by the then President General

Pervez Musharraf Pervez Musharraf (11 August 1943 – 5 February 2023) was a Pakistani general and politician who served as the tenth president of Pakistan from 2001 to 2008. Prior to his career in politics, he was a four-star general and appointed as ...

. It also saw the commissioning of the first two of the five generators i.e. Unit 1 and Unit 2. The last generator was commissioned on 6 April, 2004, and the project was completed by December the same year. It costed US$2.1 billion with funding from Pakistan's

Water and Power Development Authority The Pakistan Water & Power Development Authority (), colloquially known as WAPDA, is a Pakistani government-owned public utility agency maintaining hydropower and water in Pakistan, although it does not manage thermal power plants. WAPDA include ...

WAPDA
, the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

Asian Development Bank The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank to promote social and economic development in Asia. The bank is headquartered in Metro Manila, Philippines and maintains 31 field offices around the world. The bank was establishe ...

Japan Bank for International Cooperation The , JBIC, is a Japanese public financial institution and export credit agency that was created on October 1, 1999, through the merger of the Japan Export-Import Bank (JEXIM) and the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF). JBIC became the ...

Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau The KfW, which together with its subsidiaries DEG, KfW IPEX-Bank and FuB forms the KfW Bankengruppe ("banking group"), is a German state-owned investment and development bank, based in Frankfurt. As of 2014, it is the world's largest national d ...

European Investment Bank The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the European Union's investment bank and is owned by the 27 member states. It is the largest multilateral financial institution in the world. The EIB finances and invests both through equity and debt sol ...

and

Islamic Development Bank The Islamic Development Bank (, abbreviated as IsDB) is a multilateral development finance institution that is focused on Islamic finance for infrastructure development and located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. There are 57 shareholding member st ...

. About 1,600 cubic meter per second of water is diverted from the Indus River near the town of

Ghazi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ghazi () is an administrative subdivision of Haripur District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by pop ...

, about 7 km downstream of

Tarbela Dam Tarbela Dam (, ) is an embankment dam, earth-filled dam along the Indus River in Pakistan, Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. It is mainly located in Haripur Tehsil. It is about from the city of Topi, Pakistan, Swabi KPK, northwest of Isla ...

(4,888 MW). It then runs through a 100 metre wide and 9 metre deep open power channel which is entirely concrete along its 52 km length down to the village of Barotha where the power complex is located. In the reach from Ghazi to Barotha, the Indus River inclines by 76 meters over a distance of 63 km. After passing through the powerhouse, the water is returned to the Indus. In addition to these main works, transmission lines stretch 225 km. The World Bank classed it "A" for adequate attention to environmental and social issues. The feasibility report was prepared in 1993 during the first tenure of

Benazir Bhutto Benazir Bhutto (21 June 1953 – 27 December 2007) was a Pakistani politician who served as the 11th prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990, and again from 1993 to 1996. She was also the first woman elected to head a democratic governmen ...

's administration and the Government of Pakistan entered into an agreement for the financing and construction of the project on 7 March 1996.

Main Features

Overview

About 1,600 cubic meter per second of water is diverted from the Indus River near the town of

about 7 km downstream of

(4,888 MW). It then runs through a 100 metre wide and 9 metre deep open power channel down to the village of Barotha where the power complex is located. In the reach from Ghazi to Barotha, the Indus River inclines by 76 meters over a distance of 63 km. After passing through the powerhouse, the water is returned to the Indus. In addition to these main works, transmission lines stretch 225 km.

Construction Costs

It costed $2.25 billion with most contribution, US$1.1 billion, coming from Pakistan's own Water and Power Development Authority
WAPDA
. Other contributors were the World Bank, who gave loan of $350 million, Asian Development Bank, who gave loan of $300 million, Japan Bank of International Cooperation offering of $350 million, Islamic Development Bank, KFW Germany's loan of $150 million and European Investment Bank raised a total sum of 1.1 billion USD for the project. The construction of a 225 km, 500kV transmission line, a new 500/22kV substation, and the extension of two further substations was partially funded ($30 million) by the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development in late 1998.

Construction Partners

A number of countries worked on the project The power house and civil works were constructed by China's Dongfang Electric Corporation; a 51.90 km power channel that took water from the river and then returned it after running it through a battery of Francis turbines was constructed by Italy; turbines came from Germany; and Japan supplied Toshiba generators. 5 steel reinforced penstocks each measuring 10.6m in diameter were supplied by Austrian VA Tech Voest.

Barrage

The Barrage located 7 km downstream of Tarbela Dam, provides a pond which re-regulates the daily discharge from Tarbela by diverting the flow into the Power Channel, adding compensation water during the low flow seasons. The principal features include 20 No. standard bays, 8 No. under sluices and 8 No. head regulator bays in addition to rim embankments, fuse plug and dividing island. The Barrage can pass the design flood of 18,700 cumecs, equivalent to the flood of record. The fuse plug has been provided to pass the extreme flood up to the capacity of Tarbela’s spillway and tunnels equalling 46,200 cumecs.

Power Channel

The channel is 51.90 km long with a concrete lining and design flow of up to 1600 cumecs at a water depth of 9m. It has a bottom width of 58.4m. The Power Channel has a nearly contour alignment with hills on the left side and the land naturally draining towards the Indus River on the right side.

Turbines and Generators

The station has an assembly of five 290 MW Francis turbines. To operate the power station, water from the Indus is directed to the turbines via a 52 km-long canal and five pressure pipelines, each measuring 10.6m in diameter. The head of water at the power station is 69 m. The flow rate through each turbine at rated power is 485 m³/s, with each turbine runner having a diameter of 6.5m. The five units have an outer diameter of 10.6m, a total weight of 9,300 tonnes.

Comparison to Tarbela

The primary purpose of the project was to provide constant peak power at times when Tarbela is generating low. Furthermore, it must be kept in mind the sole purpose of Tarbela Dam is to provide water for irrigation. At times when irrigation requirement is low, water flow through the channel is low and so is the power generation. It is also possible to have no power generation from Tarbela. During the months of May and June when there is reduced generation of power from Tarbela and Mangla as a result of low reservoir levels. This brings us to the most outstanding feature of this project that it will provide power peaking capacity throughout the year with full power generation.

Environmental aspects

The project has negligible impact on existing groundwater table or quality of water due to complete length of the power channel being concrete-based. Adding to the benefits, the power channel under drainage system also helped alleviate existing water-logging problems in this part of the region. Dislocation and resettlement problems are also very small, only 110 dwellings had to be relocated to 3 villages constructed by WAPDA nearby. It is the most cost-effective power facility in Pakistan at this time and remains valid in retrospect due to the extremely favourable power generation costs in comparison with thermal power stations.

References

External links

ADB Ghazi-Barotha Project Completion Report

Mott MacDonald Data on Ghazi-Barotha

Power Technology Data on Ghazi-Barotha

{{Authority control Energy infrastructure completed in 2004 Dams on the Indus River Hydroelectric power stations in Pakistan Run-of-the-river power stations 2004 establishments in Pakistan Dams completed in 2003 Embankment dams Attock District Energy in Punjab, Pakistan