2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16
Nurek hydroelectric power station is included in the list of the largest hydroelectric power plants in the world and is the flagship of the energy industry in Tajikistan. The station is located in the Pulisanginsky gorge, near the city of Nurek in the Khatlon region of the republic, in the lower reaches of the Vakhsh River. Nurek HPP is part of the Vakhsh cascade, which consists of six operating and three hydroelectric power plants under construction.
Construction history and technical aspects
The construction of the Nurek HPP lasted more than ten years. In the mid-1950s, the Kharkiv plant named after V. I. Kirov. Preparation of all project documentation was completed in 1961.
In the same year, the construction of the station began in the Tajik SSR. The excavator bucket, which dug out the first cubic meters of soil, still rests on a pedestal on the territory of the station, reminiscent of the difficult everyday life of the first builders.
The commissioning of the station and the launch of the first hydroelectric unit took place in 1972, the launch of the last, ninth unit - in 1979. Each of the nine units with radial-axial turbines of the Nurek HPP had a capacity of 300 MW, in 1988 it was increased to 333 MW, after whichthe total power of the station exceeded 3 GW. Today, the Nurek hydroelectric power plant accounts for about 80% of all electricity generated in the republic.
The Nurek hydropower plant has a lot of underground structures, which is quite typical for stations with high rock-fill dams. The staged commissioning of the power plant equipment required the construction of three layers of temporary construction tunnels.
Water for the operation of turbines of hydroelectric units comes through three concrete pressure tunnels with a length of more than 400 and a diameter of 10 meters, ending in collectors. From each, the flow is distributed to three conduits, more than 600 meters long and 6 meters in diameter, which supply water directly to the working blades of the turbines.
Dam and reservoir
The Nurek hydroelectric dam is 300 meters high, making it the highest in the world until 2013. The construction of this rock-fill dam with a concrete plug required 56 million cubic meters of soil. Her body consists of 11 structural elements.
The reservoir formed by the dam has a normal retaining level of 910 meters, a width of 1 kilometer and a length of about 70 kilometers. The average depth of the artificial reservoir is 107 meters, the volume is 10.5 cubic meters. kilometers, the mirror area is 98 sq. kilometers. Excess water is discharged through a five-kilometer tunnel cut into the rock. The dimensions of the reservoir made it possible to organize navigation on it.
Filling of the Nurek reservoir began in 1972. As in the days of the Tajik SSR,and today the reservoir has a great influence on the agriculture of the region. Its waters are used for irrigation purposes and irrigate more than 1 million hectares of land that have become fertile.
Accidents at Nurek power plant
An accident similar to the incident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP happened on July 9, 1983. At 22:42 there was a blow in the area of the 1st hydroelectric unit, and the station workers noticed a stream of water beating from the turbine shaft. The equipment was immediately shut down and the flow blocked by an emergency gate.
Inspection showed that two-thirds of the bolts of the turbine cover were torn out, and the turbine itself was close to failure and the beginning of the rise, which would have entailed great destruction and loss of life. Thanks to the clear actions of the personnel, everything ended up with only the flooding of the lower premises of the station.
The investigation found that the cause of the failure was metal fatigue, which appeared as a result of insufficient tightening of the studs. Since that moment, mandatory ultrasonic flaw detection of turbine cover fastening studs has been introduced at the hydroelectric power stations of Tajikistan, which is carried out twice a year. Such control measures made it impossible for similar accidents to occur in the future.
In 1999, due to equipment wear and tear, two switchgears with a voltage of 220 and 500 kilovolts failed.
April 17, 2006, during the repair of the reservoir's drainage canal, through an oversight, the containment gates were opened and water rushed into the canal bed. Violation of safety ruleswork resulted in the death of three workers.
Reconstruction
On August 12, 2016, a conference was held in Dushanbe with the participation of the government of the republic, at which a decision was made to reconstruct the Nurek HPP. The modernization of the station will be carried out in two stages, the cost of the work is estimated at $700 million.
Before 2000, two switchgears and two turbine runners were replaced. The current reconstruction provides for the replacement of all nine hydroelectric units of the station, six autotransformers and the strengthening of dams and spillways.
As a result of the comprehensive modernization of the Nurek HPP, the design capacity of the station will increase to 3.2 GW, and the updated equipment will ensure many years of uninterrupted power generation.
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