By Syed Marwan Shah ISLAMABAD, March 07 (INP-WealthPK): Two upgraded and refurbished units at the Mangla Dam are soon to be in operation. A senior official at the Mangla Dam told WealthPK that the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) would soon open units 5 and 6 as the testing and commissioning of the two units had already been completed. The official said that these two units were installed 38 years ago with a 30-year lifespan, which was extendable up to 35 years. The Mangla hydroelectric power station, which is located in the Mirpur district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, has a power generation capacity of 1,000 megawatts (MW) from 10 generating units. But due to the dilapidated equipment, the power generation capacity has been reduced to below 980MW, according to WealthPK. According to Wapda’s annual report, the plant's current capacity has been reduced to 800MW as units 5 and 6 have been halted since November 12, 2017. The upgradation of the units 5 and 6 was carried out under the phase 1 of the Mangla Power Refurbishment Project. It was jointly financed by the French Development Agency and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). According to USAID, the generation capacity of units 5 and 6 was previously 80MW and 100MW, respectively, which will be increased to 135MW for unit 5 and 135MW for unit 6, and will collectively be increased by 90MW. This is enough electricity to feed a population of 833,580 people. With the refurbishment and upgradation of the two units, the dam’s revenue from electricity sales is expected to be around $60 million per year. Wapda had hired the services of MWH-Nespak Joint Venture (JV) consultants to carry out the feasibility study of units’ upgradation. The upgradation was necessitated after additional water was made available following the dam’s upraising. The feasibility study had shown that with the upgradation of the units, which was to be carried out without making any major change to the design, the dam’s overall power generation capacity would go up to 1,310MW from the existing 1,000MW. The contract agreement for consultancy services to supervise upgradation and refurbishment of units 1-6 was awarded to MWH-Nespak-ACE JV on Oct 30, 2017. The construction contract was awarded to General Electric (GE) for upgradation of the units.