The Kakhovka Hydroelectric Station is a

run-of-river Run-of-river hydroelectricity (ROR) or run-of-the-river hydroelectricity is a type of hydroelectric generation plant whereby little or no water storage is provided. Run-of-the-river power plants may have no water storage at all or a limited amo ...

power plant on the

Dnieper River } The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine an ...

Nova Kakhovka Nova Kakhovka ( uk, Нова́ Кахо́вка, ; russian: Новая Каховка) is a city in the central Kakhovka Raion region of Kherson Oblast in southern Ukraine currently under Russian occupation. Nova Kakhovka is an important po ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

. Nova Kakhovka is a port city located on the reservoir's southern bank. The primary purposes of the dam are hydroelectric power generation,

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been devel ...

and

navigation Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, ...

. It is the 6th and the last dam in the Dnieper reservoir cascade. The deep water channel allows shipping up and down river. The facility also includes a winter garden. The P47 road and a railway cross the Dnieper River on the dam. The Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant had 241 staff in October 2015. The director is Yaroslav Kobelya from September 2012. As of 2019, the dam was profitable bringing 6.1 million UAH to local government budgets and 44.6 million UAH to the national income.

Dam

The dam has an associated

lock Lock(s) may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainment * ''Lock ...

and a power station with an installed capacity of 357 MW. Water from

Kakhovka Reservoir The Kakhovka Reservoir (, ''Kakhovs′ke vodoskhovyshche'') is a water reservoir on the Dnieper River in Ukraine. It was created in 1956, when the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant was built. It is one of several reservoirs in the Dnieper reserv ...

is cooling the 5.7 GW

Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station ( uk, Запорізька атомна електростанція, translit=Zaporiz'ka atomna elektrostantsiya, russian: Запорожская атомная электростанция, Zaporozhskaya ...

, and also sent via the

North Crimean Canal The North Crimean Canal ( uk, Північно-Кримський канал, translit=Pivnichno-Krymskyi kanal, russian: Северо-Крымский канал, in the Soviet Union: North Crimean Canal of the Lenin's Komsomol of Ukraine) is a l ...

and Dnieper–Kryvyi Rih Canal to irrigate large areas of southern Ukraine and northern

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

. Construction on the dam began in September 1950. The last generator was commissioned in October 1956. It is operated by

Ukrhydroenergo PJSC «Ukrhydroenergo» ( uk, Укргідроенерго) is a state company of Ukraine that administers a cascade of major hydro power plants along Dnieper and Dniester riversPrivate Joint Stock Company «Ukrhydroenergo»is Ukraine's main hydro ...

. Starting in 2019 significant repairs and expansion were made to the facility.

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

On 24 February 2022, the power plant was captured by Russian forces during the

2022 Invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

. During weeks of artillery attacks by Ukraine in August and September, Ukrainian and Russian officials reported that the facility's ability to transport vehicles had been degraded, but the dam itself retained structural integrity. In mid-October 2022, news reports suggested that Russians may be planning to blow up the dam to slow down the Ukrainian counter offensive in the region. On 11 November, a large explosion occurred on the dam, shown on CCTV footage. The road and rail sections were destroyed, but the dam itself was mostly undamaged.

Dam

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

See also

References

Further reading