The Çetin Dam

hydropower Hydropower (from Ancient Greek -, "water"), also known as water power or water energy, is the use of falling or fast-running water to Electricity generation, produce electricity or to power machines. This is achieved by energy transformation, ...

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...

, on the

Botan River The Botan River is located in the Siirt Province of southeastern Turkey. The upstream of the Botan River is often called Çatak, which flows mostly in the Van Province. There is Botan Valley National Park in the area. The uppermost part of the � ...

Siirt Province Siirt Province, (, ; ) is a province of Turkey, located in the southeast. The province borders Bitlis to the north, Batman to the west, Mardin to the southwest, Şırnak to the south, and Van to the east. Its area is 5,717 km2, and its pop ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, with an installed capacity of 420 MW. It was completed in 2020.

Location

The dam will be located directly downstream of the Botan and Büyük River confluence. Also part of the Çetin project is a smaller dam downstream with in height. The Çetin lower dam will regulate outflows from the Çetin main dam and also produce hydroelectric power with a 112 MW capacity via two 56 MW Kaplan turbines. Overall, six dams are to be built on the Botan River, among which Çetin dam will have the largest power plant.

Design

Çetin Dam is a

roller-compacted concrete Roller-compacted concrete (RCC) or rolled concrete (rollcrete) is a special blend of concrete that has essentially the same ingredients as conventional concrete but in different ratios, and increasingly with partial substitution of fly ash for po ...

body

embankment dam An embankment dam is a large artificial dam. It is typically created by the placement and compaction of a complex semi-plastic mound of various compositions of soil or rock. It has a semi-pervious waterproof natural covering for its surface ...

. With a volume exceeding 4.7 million m³, il will be the biggest of its kind in Turkey, and bigger than any existing RCC dam in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. The dam will be 165 m high and create a 615 million m³ reservoir. The dam's power plant will house four vertical axis

Francis turbine The Francis turbine is a type of water turbine. It is an inward-flow reaction turbine that combines radial and axial flow concepts. Francis turbines are the most common water turbine in use today, and can achieve over 95% efficiency. The pro ...

-generators, three of them with a 135 MW capacity and a smaller 15 MW one.

Funding

The owner was the Norwegian,

Statkraft Statkraft AS is a hydropower Hydropower (from Ancient Greek -, "water"), also known as water power or water energy, is the use of falling or fast-running water to Electricity generation, produce electricity or to power machines. This is ac ...

, at a cost of US $678 million. The Contractor was Yϋksel-iLci Joint Venture. Veidekke Industri AS was the subcontractor for Cetin dam. In September 2017, Limak invested $400 million to purchase the rights, in order to complete the whole project by 2020–21.

Timeline

Construction on the main dam began in December 2011 and the power plant was first expected to be complete in 2015, with a planned capacity of 401 MW. The project experienced delays due to

Kurdistan Workers' Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or the PKK, isDespite the PKK's 12th Congress announcing plans for total organisational dissolution, the PKK has not yet been dissolved de facto or de jure. a Kurds, Kurdish militant political organization and armed ...

attacks on the construction site and equipment. In February 2016, Statkraft suspended construction. Works resumed in July 2017. Construction was 84% complete as of September 2019 ; at that time, as many as 15,000 m³ of concrete are poured onto the structure every day. The dam started impounding water in January 2020. The first two units of the power station started generating electricity in April 2020, whereas the two remaining ones are expected to be commissioned by May 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cetin Dam Dams in Siirt Province Rock-filled dams Hydroelectric power stations in Turkey Dams on the Botan River

Location

Design

Funding

Timeline

See also

References