By Umer Bhatti
LAHORE: The Monday’s short-circuiting of 10 turbines at the Mangla Hydro Power Station will take at least two months for repair, The News has learnt.

The entire power plant came to a grinding halt after the mishap, which, the sources revealed, was the result of Mangla managers’ attempt to push the worn-out system beyond limits, taking the total generation to 1,150 MW against the normal 1,000 MW. The original ‘oil-filled’ cables, having outlived their utility, could not survive the extra load, leading to the disaster. The Wapda had already awarded the tender for the replacement of these underground oil-filled cables. These cables, joining the turbines with the national grid, had a lifespan of 30 years and should have been replaced till 1997.

The sources said initially the cables of two turbines heated up due to overloading, leading to spark in one of the turbines, which turned into a full-blown fire. The sources also said that the Wapda authorities were repeatedly informed by the officials of the Mangla Dam project to replace these cables to avoid any future setback, but the hierarchy gave a deaf ear to these requests.

The issue of replacing the oil-filled cables, the sources revealed, was taken up some two years ago, and finally the Wapda considered two companies — M/s SGWI and Excel Technological Services (ETS) — to award the contract in February 2008. The contract was finally awarded to ETS in February 2009. Ironically, the work on the project was yet to begin.

The total length of the tunnel, having all the cables, is one kilometre. Managing Director Pepco Tahir Basharat Cheema has said “we are going to lay the overhead cable, which would hasten the recovery process and save time”. But experts say it would take around 3-4 months even if the cables were installed overhead. It was also learnt there was no local expertise available in the country so the expertise had to be called from abroad.

Sources in the Wapda claimed the authority did not have the power cable in hand and planning to import it from Saudi Arabia. According to a former member Wapda, if the cables in any of the turbine in a power station get overloaded, there exist certain instruments called ‘Protection Relays’, which should be operated right after an emergency occurs. He said these relays were battery-operated and it is possible that the batteries were not charged or the ‘Protection Relays’ were out of work altogether. The News made a number of calls to get the version of Wapda Chairman Shakil Durrani and other officials but no one attended the calls. The story of CD’s evaluation of foreign gifts

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