The Cheboksary Dam (russian: Чебокса́рская ГЭС, Cheboksary GES) is a hydroelectric dam on the

Volga river 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 catchm ...

, the latest of the Volga-Kama Cascade of dams.

Technical data

Construction started in the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

in 1968 and mostly completed by 1986. The complex consists of power plant built in dam 548 m long, concrete spillway dam 120 m long, earth fill dams with a total length of 3355 m, and a single-chamber two-lane lock. The total water front length is 4480 m. Installed power is 1404 MW, designed average annual production is 3310 GWh, but actual annual production is 2100 GWh due to lowered reservoir level. Power house has 18 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 a ...

s, each 78 MW at 12.4 m head. The dam forms

Cheboksary Reservoir Cheboksary Reservoir (Russian: Чебоксарское водохранилище, Chuvash: Шупашкар шыв усравĕ, ''Şupaşkar şıv usravĕ'') is an artificial lake in the central part of the Volga River and formed by the Cheboksa ...

with surface area of 2182 km².

Reservoir level problem

The station began to work in 1981 with normal water level lowered to 63 m above sea level. Most of flooded land belonged to

Mari El The Mari El Republic (russian: Респу́блика Мари́й Эл, ''Respublika Mariy El''; Meadow Mari: ; Hill Mari: ) is a republic of Russia. It is in the European Russia region of the country, along the northern bank of the Volga Rive ...

Republic. Flooded land included valuable meadows, several hundred acres ( hectares ) of oak forest that was not duly felled. Rising normal water level to the design value of 68 m was hindered first by incomplete reservoir banks protection, then being opposed by

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 3,31 ...

and

Republic. Now the station is operating at 63 m water level, with an actual installed power of 820 MW and an average annual production of 2100 GWh. Also lowered level poses difficulties to navigation on the Volga river between

Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət ), colloquially shortened to Nizhny, from the 13th to the 17th century Novgorod of the Lower Land, formerly known as Gork ...

and Gorodets, with allowed draught down to 3 m, whereas it is 4 m on other parts of the Volga.Прогноз глубин по ЕГС (in Russian)
Water quality in reservoir degrades because shallow waters comprise 33% of its area instead of the designed 19%. The water level problem is still being discussed. Further water level rise will cause flood of vast areas of

and

, including most part of

between the Oka and the Volga rivers.

References

{{Volga River Dams in Russia Hydroelectric power stations built in the Soviet Union Hydroelectric power stations in Russia Dams completed in 1986 Dams on the Volga River 1986 establishments in Russia es:Embalse de Cheboksary

Technical data

Reservoir level problem

See also

References