Mangla Dam Hydel energy since its commissioning. The annual generation during 2008-2009 was 4797.425 Million KWh while the station shared a peak load of 1150 MW which was 8.18% of the total WAPDA system peak. On 1 September 2013, the water level in Mangla Dam reached to a record height of 1237.15 feet against the maximum conservation level of 1242 feet. "Radio Pakistan" reported that "the water level in Mangla Dam has attained maximum height of 1237.15 feet in the history and it is still increasing." Mangla reservoir had an initial reservoir capacity of 5.88 Million Acre-feet (MAF), which reduced to 4.674
Mangla Dam releases at the artificial head of the reservoir. The project, though not initially designed as one, also works as a flood control structure by retaining water during the flood-prone season of Monsoon. On December 5, 1971, the dam was damaged due to a bombing raid conducted by the Indian Air Force during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. This was against the international convention that large water reservoirs would not be targeted in war. As a consequence, the hydro project was temporarily out of service. From the data available in 2009, the project had generated 183.551 billion units of low cost