List of the largest hydroelectric power stations in Russia

Modern civilization has generated amazing titanic structures, the largest of which are comparable to such ancient monuments as the pyramids of Egypt or South America. One of these structures is hydroelectric dam, blocking powerful and deep rivers.

Hydroelectric Power Plants of Russia

Russia, which has vast territories and a large stock of hydropower generated by the flow of numerous rivers, is today one of the leaders among powerful hydropower plants.

In total, in the Russian Federation, if we count hydroelectric power plants with a design capacity of 1 megawatt or higher, there are about 150. Plus, many small hydroelectric power stations in Russia. Moreover, due to the relative cheapness, availability and large reserves of undeveloped hydropower, this amount is gradually growing. Of course, the construction of huge hydroelectric power stations on the rivers of Russia, like the Sayano-Shushenskaya, requires very significant costs and pays off slowly, so the number of such plants is growing due to low-power stations.

List of Russian high-power hydroelectric power stations (from 1 gigawatt)

Due to the huge number of hydropower plants in Russia, we will not consider all of them in this article. Instead, we will survey the most powerful of them (with a design capacity of 100 megawatts). Some of them form cascades of Russian hydroelectric power stations, which are located on the same river (for example, the Angarsk cascade). Let's dwell on the largest hydropower plants.

After analyzing the table, we can understand that the largest hydroelectric power plants in Russia were built in the Soviet era in the years 60-80.

Only a small number of them were built in the Russian Federation in the 90s and in the new millennium.

HPPs built in Russia with a capacity of 0.1 - 1 gigawatts

Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station

This hydroelectric power station is the first among the largest hydroelectric power stations in Russia. On a global scale, it occupies an honorable ninth place. The hydroelectric power station owes its name to the Sayana mountain range, in the region of which it is located, and the place where the famous political figure Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin) - the village of Shushensky, was shorting the link.

The construction of this electric power giant began in 1961, some of the construction work was completed only in the 2000s. In honor of the builders, a whole sculptural complex has been installed opposite the hydroelectric power station: engineers, installers and ordinary workers who have been working on the next century construction are imprinted in stone. The composition is very picturesque, which makes it a desirable place for tourist photographs.

Dam

The dam of the Sayano-Shushenskaya power station is the highest in the Russian Federation. Its height is 0.245 km, length 1.074 km, width 0.105 km, along the ridge width 0.025 km. The stability of the dam is ensured by the unique design of the arched belt (part of the load - about 40% - transferred to the rocky shores).

The dam goes into the rocks of the coast to a depth of 10 and 15 meters. Simple calculations show that the concrete mixture from which the dam was built could be enough to build a highway from Moscow to Vladivostok.

Emergencies

Perhaps the most serious test of strength for the entire Sayan-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station was an earthquake of approximately 8 on the Richter scale that occurred on 02/10/11. Despite the fact that the epicenter was only 78 kilometers from the station, it did not cause any visible damage to neither the dam nor other structures of this hydroelectric station in Russia.

But ordinary citizens are more aware of another incident related to the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station - the 2009 accident. It became such a serious test for the Russian power grid that the government was forced to impose restrictions on the use of incandescent lamps of high power.

Crash

The accident of 2009 at the largest hydroelectric power station in Russia went down in history as the most significant and largest-scale accident in the Russian gas transmission system (hydraulic structures). Killed seventy-five people. The investigators called it the main reasons for the destruction of the turbine cover mounts.

As a result, the engine room was flooded with a powerful stream of water, the ceilings, walls and numerous equipment of the station were destroyed. Power supply has completely stopped.

Possible consequences

The dam was in danger of destruction. This could be a disaster on a national scale, because the villages and towns located downstream of the Yenisei would have suffered very much. Human, economic and environmental losses would be colossal! Fortunately, the employees of the station by decisive action prevented the development of events according to the most negative scenario.