DUSHANBE, July 17, 2008, Asia-Plus — Water wheels of all nine units at the Norak hydroelectric power stations (HPS) are expected to have been replaced by 2013, Rashid Gulov, the deputy engineer-in-chief with Barqi Tojik (Tajik electric systems) power holding, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
According to him, the modernization work will be carried out gradually. “Replacement of water wheel at one of the station’s units will start in September or October, when generation of electrical power usually decreases and replacement of the water wheel will not affect the station operation,” Gulov said.
“Even if we replace two water wheels per year, it will take 4½ years,” said the holding official, “Therefore, work on replacing replacement water wheels having outlived their service life will end in 2012 or 2013.”
We will recall that Ukrainian type transport aircraft Ruslan airlifted a 65-ton water wheel for the Norak HPS to the Dushanbe airport on June 15.
The water wheel was manufactured at the scientific production association in Sumy, Ukraine. The wheel has been designed by the Kharkov association, Kharkov Turbo Engineering and a total cost of it is some 2.4 million US dollars, the spokesman said.
A 2700 MW Norak HPS, which is Tajikistan’s main electricity producer, has nine units. The station’s capacity is 11.2 billion kWh of electrical power per year.
