HULU TERENGGANU: The flooding of the second hydroelectric dam at the Puah reservoir in Hulu Terengganu has started and is six months ahead of schedule.
Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) will raise the water level to 276 metres above the level in the first phase of impounding the water and the level would be raised in stages to a maximum level of 296m.
“This will create a lake covering 6,977 hectares, which is one-sixth the size of Tasik Kenyir, which measures 36,900 hectares,” said Deputy Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid.
He was at the project site to brief the media on the progress of the RM2 billion Puah reservoir, which has the capacity to produce 250 megawatts when its two turbines are fully functional in 2016.
“The hydroelectric dam will be fully commissioned by April 2016 and will be producing 250 megawatts,” he said, adding that TNB would start testing the underground turbines by July next year.
Mahdzir said the new dam would not only mitigate floods during the monsoon season but also served as a new ecotourism destination for Terengganu that would complement the popularity of Tasik Kenyir, which has a water body the size of Singapore.
He said TNB Research and the Wildlife Department were working to evacuate animals trapped by the impoundment of the new dam and the rehabilitation of the Malayan mahsheer (Kelah) fish to upper parts of rivers filling up the lake.