The Volga Hydroelectric Station or Volga GES () also known as the 22nd Congress of the CPSU Stalingrad/Volgograd Hydroelectric Power Station (), is the largest

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...

station in Europe, and the last of the Volga-Kama Cascade of dams, immediately before the

Volga River The Volga (, ) is the longest river in Europe and the longest endorheic basin river in the world. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchment ...

flows into the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...

. It was the largest powerstation in the world between 1960 and 1963. Today, it is operated by the partly government-owned electricity company

RusHydro RusHydro (previous name: Hydro-OGK, ) is a Russian hydroelectricity company. As of early 2012 it had a capacity of 34.9 gigawatts. In late 2009, it was the world's second-largest hydroelectric power producer and is the country's largest p ...

History

Built as part of a massive postwar effort known as the

Great Construction Projects of Communism Great Construction Projects of Communism () is a phrase that is used to identify a series of the most ambitious construction megaprojects of major great importance for the economy of the Soviet Union. The projects were initiated in the 1950s on th ...

, it was authorized by

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

signing the

Council of Ministers of the USSR The Council of Ministers of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( rus, Совет министров СССР, r=Sovet Ministrov SSSR, p=sɐˈvʲet mʲɪˈnʲistrəf ˌɛsˌɛsˌɛsˈɛr), sometimes abbreviated as Sovmin or referred to as the ...

order #3555 on 6 August 1950. The plan called for building a station north of the city of

Stalingrad Volgograd,. geographical renaming, formerly Tsaritsyn. (1589–1925) and Stalingrad. (1925–1961), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. The city lies on the western bank of the Volga, covering an area o ...

(modern

Volgograd Volgograd,. formerly Tsaritsyn. (1589–1925) and Stalingrad. (1925–1961), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. The city lies on the western bank of the Volga, covering an area of , with a population ...

) with a minimum storage capacity of 1.7 million kWh. Ten thousand youths from the

Komsomol The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, usually known as Komsomol, was a political youth organization in the Soviet Union. It is sometimes described as the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), although it w ...

league participated in the construction, and the city of Volzhsky was formed on the left bank of the river to provide housing. Machinery was sent from all corners of the country;

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Tashkent Tashkent (), also known as Toshkent, is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uzbekistan, largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of more than 3 million people as of April 1, 2024. I ...

Chelyabinsk Chelyabinsk; , is the administrative center and largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. It is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, seventh-largest city in Russia, with a population ...

and

Kharkov Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

, and forestry from

Karelia Karelia (; Karelian language, Karelian and ; , historically Коре́ла, ''Korela'' []; ) is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for Russia (including the Soviet Union, Soviet era), Finland, and Sweden. It is currentl ...

. New electrical equipment came from

Zaporozhye Zaporizhzhia, formerly known as Aleksandrovsk or Oleksandrivsk until 1921, is a city in southeast Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper River. It is the administrative centre of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Zaporizhzhia has a population of ...

and Sverdlovsk. The turbines and generators were built in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. In total more than 1,500 individual plants and dozens of research institutes sent equipment and specialists. The first powerhouse came online on 22 December 1958, and the plant was declared complete on 10 September 1961. Technologically the station broke much new ground. In 1959 a new Moscow-Stalingrad 500 kV high voltage line power came into operation. Several years later, for the first time in the world, an experimental 800 kV DC line,

Donbas The Donbas (, ; ) or Donbass ( ) is a historical, cultural, and economic region in eastern Ukraine. The majority of the Donbas is occupied by Russia as a result of the Russo-Ukrainian War. The word ''Donbas'' is a portmanteau formed fr ...

to Volgograd, was successfully tested and later became operational. During the 1960s and 1970s several new types of electrotechnical and hydromechanical machines were tested for future Siberian and foreign stations.

Technical details

Today the station is the largest in Europe. It consists of a 725-metre long, 44-metre high concrete dam that crosses the Volga river. Supporting it is a 3250-metre-long landfilled dam with a maximum height of 47 metres. The station also offers railway and road crossings of the Volga. The present power rating of the station is 2,734 MW and annual energy output of ~12 billion kilowatt hours. There are a total of 22 generators. One generator produces 115 MW, 16 produce 125.5 MW each, and five produce 120 MW each. There is an additional 11 MW unit. The 4.9 kilometer dam forms the

Volgograd reservoir The Volgograd Reservoir () is a reservoir on the Volga river in the Russian oblasts of Volgograd and Saratov. The reservoir's water level is maintained by the dam of the Volga Hydroelectric Station, built from 1958 to 1961. Named after the cit ...

. At present the station is managed by OAO Volzhskaya GES that is owned by OAO GidroOGK, a daughter company of the state organisation RAO AES Rossii. The generators of the power plant are connected to the

power grid ''Power Grid'' is the English-language version of the second edition of the multiplayer German-style board game ''Funkenschlag'', designed by Friedemann Friese and first released in 2004. ''Power Grid'' was released by Rio Grande Games. I ...

in a somewhat unusual way, since the machine transformers of the generators serve also as the inverter transformers of the

static inverter plant An HVDC converter station (or simply converter station) is a specialised type of substation which forms the terminal equipment for a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line.Arrillaga, Jos; High Voltage Direct Current Transmission, s ...

HVDC Volgograd-Donbass A high-voltage direct current (HVDC) electric power transmission system uses direct current (DC) for electric power transmission, in contrast with the more common alternating current (AC) transmission systems. Most HVDC links use voltages betwe ...

, which is on the dam. In contrast to other static inverter plants, it has no

harmonic filter A power conditioner (also known as a line conditioner or power line conditioner) is a device intended to improve the quality of the power that is delivered to electrical load equipment. The term most often refers to a device that acts in one or ...

Economic value

The new plant played a decisive role in the development of the Lower Volga region and the Donbass, as well as uniting the large energetic system of the Central, Volga, and Southern economic regions. The new dam also allowed for the Volga to become navigable, allowing for a path from

Saratov Saratov ( , ; , ) is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and administrative center of Saratov Oblast, Russia, and a major port on the Volga River. Saratov had a population of 901,361, making it the List of cities and tow ...

Astrakhan Astrakhan (, ) is the largest city and administrative centre of Astrakhan Oblast in southern Russia. The city lies on two banks of the Volga, in the upper part of the Volga Delta, on eleven islands of the Caspian Depression, from the Caspian Se ...

and the Caspian. In addition, there were projects for the irrigation of the excessive adjacent dry region of the left bank Volga south of it, particularly the

West Kazakhstan Province West Kazakhstan Region (; ) is a region of Kazakhstan. The region has a population of 695,000 as of July 1st, 2024. Its administrative centre is Oral (also known as Uralsk or Ural'sk), a city of about 250,000 inhabitants. The Region was created ...

. The power generated by the station is used primarily by the city of

, by Moscow, by Donbas via the only long distance

HVDC A high-voltage direct current (HVDC) electric power transmission system uses direct current (DC) for electric power transmission, in contrast with the more common alternating current (AC) transmission systems. Most HVDC links use voltages betwe ...

-line in Russia, the

Ecology

One of the most negative results that the dam caused was that it destroyed the traditional path of Caspian fish migration to their breeding grounds.http://kislorod.life/question_answer/pyat_mifov_volzhsko_kamskogo_kaskada_ges/ Five myths of the Volga-Kama cascade of hydropower plants (RU) The most affected became the

beluga sturgeon The beluga (), also known as the beluga sturgeon or great sturgeon (''Huso huso''), is a species of anadromous fish in the sturgeon family (Acipenseridae) of the order Acipenseriformes. It is found primarily in the Caspian and Black Sea basins, ...

, crucial to the Black

Caviar Caviar or caviare is a food consisting of salt-cured roe of the family Acipenseridae. Caviar is considered a delicacy and is eaten as a garnish or spread. Traditionally, the term caviar refers only to roe from wild sturgeon in the Caspi ...

industry. The fishery canal turned out to be inefficient, and from 1962 to 1967 the annual production rate was 15 percent of that before the dam. The other major effect of the dam is that it formed one of the largest reservoirs, which amounts for a behemoth volume 31.5 cubic kilometres of water and stretches 540 km long, and up to 17 km wide with a massive 3,117 square kilometre surface area. As a result, numerous settlements and fertile lands were lost.

References

External links