Project Brief

The Reshun Hydropower Project is located in District Chitral at distance of 52 km north of Chitral. The equipment of 2.8 MW was provided by GTZ (Pak German Technical Cooperation) as grant. The powerhouse was commissioned in 1999 as part of social uplift project in Chitral region for supplying of electricity to predominately upper Chitral region and some parts of lower Chitral through its own transmission and distribution system with a tariff rate of Rs 1.40/kWh. With increase in load demand of the area, the project capacity was subsequently enhanced to 4.2 MW in 2006. Till July 2015, the project was responsible to supply electricity to over 18,000 consumers at the cheapest tariff through its own transmission and distribution system of 33 kV transmission line as per following details:

The devastating Flood occurred on July 16 and July 25, 2015 in Chitral valley, which severely damaged the power plant including intake structures and Electro-Mechanical equipment. The power plant has been successfully rehabilitated in year 2021 using the same foundations and efficient E&M machinery and therefore the generation capacity of the power plant is enhanced to 4.8 MW. Currently, the power plant is providing electricity to over eighteen thousand (18,000) consumers of District Upper Chitral. As the project was a social uplift project of GoKP for Chitral, therefore the power tariff rate was the lowest, starting from Rs 1/kWh to 4.69/kWh till 2022-23. The project was operated on no profit no loss basis since year 1999. Currently, due to the enormous increase in the load demand of the area, the bridge between generation and demand has been met from the Jutilasht grid of PESCO. MOU has been signed under the leadership of Federal Minister for Energy & Power and Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to implement the tariff rates of PESCO in line with the lower Chitral, till the decision of the NEPRA for continuing special waiver in the tariff rate for Upper Chitral (PEDO) consumers. The increase in the tariff has been implemented since June, 2023.

Salient Features

* The project is being run on no profit no loss basis to provide the cheap electricity to the locals of upper Chitral.

Challenges

Due to frequent flash floods phenomenon in the district Chitral, there are considerable damages to the transmission and distribution network of the power plant accompanied with inflow containing high siltation and large boulders. Moreover, the transmission line, which is stretched to over 200 KMs (HT line) and over 440 KMs distribution network, with sparse community, mountainous terrains, and harsh weather conditions frequent line tripping’s are  big challenges and moreover, since the load demand of the area has increased many folds, the excess demand of the area is being catered off from PESCO through Jutilasht grid.