The Nizhny Novgorod Hydroelectric Station or Nizhny Novgorod GES (russian: Нижегоро́дская ГЭС) is a hydroelectric station on the

Volga The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catch ...

river. Located near Zavolzhye,

Nizhny Novgorod Oblast Nizhny Novgorod Oblast (russian: link=no, Нижегородская область, ''Nizhegorodskaya oblast''), is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the city of Nizhny Novgorod. It has a population of 3,3 ...

, it belongs to the Volga-Kama Cascade of dams.

Technical data

Construction started in 1948 and was completed in 1959. Complex consists of concrete spillway dam, 7 earth-fill dams and 3 dikes total 18.6 km long and up to 40 m high, power plant house, and two single-chamber two-lane locks with an intermediate pond. Installed power is 530.5 MW, average annual production is 1510 GWh. Power house has 8 generator units with

Kaplan turbine The Kaplan turbine is a propeller-type water turbine which has adjustable blades. It was developed in 1913 by Austrian professor Viktor Kaplan, who combined automatically adjusted propeller blades with automatically adjusted wicket gates to ach ...

s at 17 m head. 6 units of 65 MW, one of 68 MW and one of 72.5 MW. The dam with total waterfront length of 13 km forms

Gorky Reservoir Gorky Reservoir (russian: Го́рьковское водохрани́лище), known colloquially as Gorky Sea (russian: Го́рьковское мо́ре), is an artificial lake in the central part of the Volga River in Russia, formed by a ...

History

Construction began in 1948. Although it was a medium-size project, e.g. compared to

Volga Hydroelectric Station The Volga Hydroelectric Station or Volga GES (russian: Волжская ГЭС) also known as the 22nd Congress of the CPSU Stalingrad/Volgograd Hydroelectric Power Station (russian: Сталинградская/Волгоградская ГЭ� ...

, it was often called an 'innovation testing range'. It also was the USSR's longest dam. More than 15,000 people came to the construction site. Construction site's infrastructure has been built along with construction of the station. Many industries of Zavolzhye and Gorodets owe their existence to the station's construction. Zavolzhye town was built from scratch. 8,500 houses and 700 state-owned and public buildings were moved to Zavolzhye and Gorodets from villages that were to be flooded. The first concrete pouring for the dam took place in April 1951. The river current was stopped August 24, 1955. November 2, 1955, when the first turbine was put under load, is an official station's launch date. The last eight turbine was run in December 1956. In 1959 generators' cooling system improvement and reinforcement of turbines were implemented, increasing installed power by 120 MW to 520 MW.

External links

{{Volga River Dams in Russia Hydroelectric power stations built in the Soviet Union Hydroelectric power stations in Russia Buildings and structures in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast Dams completed in 1955 Dams on the Volga River 1955 establishments in Russia