The Tsimlyansk Hydroelectric Power Station, being the only hydroelectric power station on the Don River, is at the same time a key section of the Volga-Don waterway. It is located in the Rostov region, not far from the cities of Volgodonsk and Tsimlyansk, formed only due to the emergence of a power plant. Photos of the Tsimlyansk hydroelectric station are not able to convey the grandiose scale of the station’s structures, it refers to those man-made objects that must be seen in person.
Stages of a great construction
The first ideas about a waterway along the Volga and Don with a hydroelectric power station and a navigable reservoir were worked out as early as 1927, 1933 and 1938, but for a variety of reasons, the development of the project began only in 1944.
The decision to build the Volga-Don waterway and its Tsimlyanskaya hydroelectric station was approved by a resolution of the Soviet government on February 27, 1948. Construction was immediately declared the "great building of communism." The planned commissioning of the station was scheduled for 1953.
However, not all builders participated in this "celebration of creation" of their own free will. The Ministry of Internal Affairs was appointed responsible for the project, and on January 14, 1949, the Tsimlyansk branch of the Gulag was established. Although the construction of the Tsimlyanskaya Hydroelectric Power Station was well mechanized, the number of prisoners involved mainly in earthworks reached 47 thousand. In total, more than 103 thousand people passed through the camp. Until the end of 1949 at the construction site, the labor of captured Germans was widely used.
In 1948, preparatory work began. This included the construction of storage and residential buildings, roads, quarries and a temporary diesel power station. At the same time, the final stage of the preparation of the Tsimlyansk hydroelectric project was in progress, which ended at the beginning of next year.
On February 10, 1949, the construction of a spillway dam and the building of the power plant began. Tsimlyanskaya hydroelectric power station grew at an impressive pace. The Don channel was blocked on September 23, 1951, and already in January 1952, the filling of the reservoir began.
In the same 1952, the station began to generate electricity. On June 6, the launch of the 1st hydraulic unit took place; on July 19, the 2nd hydraulic unit was launched. In the spring of 1953, the 3rd and 4th hydropower units were launched; on July 22, the State Commission recognized the Tsimlyanskaya HPP ready for commissioning. The final output of the station to its design capacity occurred on July 22, 1954, when the last, 5th unit gave out energy.
Brief Specifications
The building of Tsimlyanskaya hydroelectric power station, where the machine room with four aggregate units is located, is combined with a fish elevator and is a channel-type structure. Today, 4 vertical hydraulic units equipped with rotary-blade turbines are installed in the machine room of the station. They drive generators, 3 of which have a capacity of 52.5 MW and 1 with a capacity of 50 MW. A fifth 4 MW generator is included in the design of the fish elevator.
At first, the station had a capacity of 164 MW, generated at 4 hydraulic units of 40 MW and 1 unit of a fish elevator. Upon completion of the modernization, which ended in 1981, the capacity of the main generators rose to 50 MW, and the total energy production increased to 204 MW.
From 1997 to 2012, during the next stage of reconstruction, the obsolete hydraulic units of the station were completely replaced with new ones. As a result, the power of the station rose again, and now Tsimlyanskaya HPP supplies 211.5 MW of electricity to the contacts of the open switchgear. Also during these years there was a replacement of the gates of the spillway dam.
Station waterworks
Being a low-pressure riverbed hydroelectric power station, Tsimlyanskaya HPP has the 1st capital class. The building of the power plant is included in the pressure head of the hydroelectric power station. Along the dams of the station are roads and railways.
In addition to the station building with a fish elevator, the Tsimlyansk hydroelectric complex includes:
- two left-bank bulk earthen dams, 12 and 25 meters high;
- 35-meter high right-bank alluvial earthen dam;
- concrete spillway dam, 43.6 meters high;
- two shipping locks with an outport, a connecting channel between them and the lower approach channel;
- the main structure of the Don main canal;
- Tsimlyansk reservoir, with a length of 360 and a width of 40 kilometers, with a maximum depth of 31 meters.
During work at the Tsimlyansk hydroelectric facility, 29.5 million cubic meters of soft and 869 thousand cubic meters of rock were excavated, 46.6 million cubic meters of soft soil and 910 thousand cubic meters of stone were poured. 1908 thousand cubic meters of concrete were laid in the structures of Tsimlyanskaya HPP, 21 thousand tons of mechanisms and metal structures were installed.
Economic importance
In addition to generating low-cost renewable electricity, the Tsimlyansk hydroelectric complex provides regular navigation and navigable depth in the lower reaches of the Don. The reservoir, formed on the problematic section of the river with rifts and shallow water, made it possible for large vessels to pass.
Tsimlyansk reservoir feeds a lot of fisheries, irrigation canals and systems, providing water for irrigation of more than 750 thousand hectares of farmland, supplies drinking water to about 200 thousand residents of neighboring cities, provides water to the Rostov NPP.
The dams of Tsimlyanskaya hydroelectric station protect agricultural lands and settlements below from spring floods. The reservoir of the Tsimlyansk hydroelectric power station is of great fishing importance, up to 6 thousand tons of valuable fish are caught here annually.
Environmental impact
When filling the Tsimlyansk reservoir, 263.5 thousand hectares of land, 164 small settlements and part of the city of Kalach-on-Don went under water. The transfer of a number of sections of railroad tracks, roadbed and communication lines was required, as well as the need arose for the construction of the Chirsky bridge over the Don River. As a result of flooding, the Sarkel fortress, barely explored by scientists, also died.
The structures of the Tsimlyanskaya hydroelectric power station complicated the passage to spawning places for fish, which negatively affected the natural reproduction of the fish resources of the Don and the Sea of Azov.
The appearance of the Tsimlyansk reservoir caused an increase in evaporation losses, which significantly reduced river flow into the Sea of Azov and led to an increase in its salinity.