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Tarbela Dam

Haripur District, Pakistan

The 60th largest power station in the world

4.89 GW · Capacity

Tarbela Dam (Pashto, Hindko) is an earth-filled dam on the Indus River in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. It is mainly located in Swabi Tehsil. The dam lies in the vicinity of the town of Topi, 105 km (65 mi) northwest of Islamabad and 125 km (80 mi) east of Peshawar. It is the largest earth-filled dam in the world. The dam is 143 metres (470 ft) high above the riverbed, and its reservoir, Tarbela Lake, has a surface area of approximately 250 square kilometres (97 sq mi). The Tarbela Dam is located where the Indus River emerges from the foothills of the Himalayas and enters the Pothohar Plateau. The dam has a reservoir that stores water for irrigation, flood control, and hydroelectric power generation, capturing monsoon flows and releasing water during the low-flow winter period. The average annual flow available is 101 billion cubic meters (3221 m3/sec). It has a storage capacity of 11.9 billion cubic meters. The dam was completed in 1976. The installed capacity of the 4,888 MW Tarbela hydroelectric power stations will increase to 6,418 MW after completion of the planned fifth extension financed by Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the World Bank. Then, it will be the 12th largest hydroelectric dam in the world, for electricity production capacity.

Power station data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).

More power stations in Pakistan

  1. Bunji Dam7.1 GW
  2. Diamer-Bhasha Dam4.5 GW
  3. Dasu Dam4.32 GW
  4. Kalabagh Dam3.6 GW
  5. Guddu Thermal Power Station2.43 GW

Other large power stations worldwide

  1. Bui Dam · Ghana1,440 GW
  2. Western Green Energy Hub · Australia50 GW
  3. Gujarat Hybrid Renewable Energy Park · India30 GW
  4. Three Gorges Dam · China22.5 GW
  5. Baihetan Dam · China16 GW
  6. Itaipu Dam · Paraguay14 GW
  7. Xiluodu Dam · China13.86 GW
  8. Belo Monte Dam · Brazil11 GW