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Mahipar Hydro Electric Plant
This plant is constructed on the Kabul and Logar Rivers at Mahipar,
with installed capacity of 66 MW, 3 x 22 MW vertical Francis turbines from
Germany. At the moment the plant is operational but lacks spares.
Since its commissioning in 1967, the plant has hardly received any
servicing. KfW is financing the complete rehabilitation of one unit
and modernization of a second unit. The work is ongoing and is
expected to be completed in 2006.
Having little
storage, Mahipar only operates in winter. The Season is
October through May; Generally, in
December through April all three units can run. As of winter
2007, the turbines work only at
44 MW. Water is usually
available for one unit from the beginning of October; During month
of May usually only one unit is running;
current status of the plant is constraint due to
shortage of water. 28.July.2007
Seasonality of Hydrology at Mahipar
The rehabilitation of Unit 3 started at the end of summer in
very slow process (money, contract, etc), the official schedule for
maintenance is December 2005 through May 2006 (there is potential
for short testing during May). The next schedule for unit 1
maintenance is six months and the same for unit 2. Rehabilitation
and timing of unit 1 and 2 depends on the release of funds by KfW
and ARTF.
Some
recent problems were as follows:
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Rebuilding road
from Kabul to Jalalabad diverted all traffic. Cars and trucks
are crossing stream that provide cooling water for generators.
Cooling water is muddy with a lot of clay in the water. This
will cause problems with cooling of generators. Road
construction will continue for at least 2 to 6 months.
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Rubbish in
Kabul river is so significant that cleaning system requires
almost every hour to be run. There could be option to install
additional cleaning system in upper side of the river.
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There are
gates, tunnel, etc. for installing additional 2 x 14 MW
generating units; the power house has to be completely built.
Rehabilitation Program
Together with Mahipar rehabilitation is as a German grant ($15
million) plus ARTF ($7 million); German grant is handled by
KfW (Lehmayer); starting date was 7/3/2003; expected end of
rehabilitation is 20/3/2007.
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