DUSHANBE, September 16, 2010, Asia-Plus — 400 million U.S. dollars are needed for rehabilitation and modernization of the Norak hydroelectric power plant (HPP), according to the Ministry of Energy and Industries (MoEI).
The source at a MoEI says the investment project for rehabilitation and modernization of the Norak HPP has been developed by local specialists and feasibility study for implementation of the project has been conducted by one of Chinese energy companies.
In the meantime, the Sarband hydropower plant in Khatlon province also requires rehabilitation and according to the investment project, 65 million U.S. dollars are needed for rehabilitation of this station.
We will recall that work on replacement of rotor of Unit 8 of the Norak HPP was completed in early September that will allow increasing the unit’s capacity to 350 megawatts. In 2009, the rotor of Unit 3 was replaced and modernization allowed increasing its capacity from 150 to 335 megawatts.
Besides, reconstruction of 220-kV outdoor switchyard of the Norak station is under way and is expected to be completed in 2011. The contract for reconstruction of the switchyard was granted in 2009 to AREVA Energietechnik.
A tripartite loan and financing agreement of 25 million euros for the project “Rehabilitation/Reconstruction of Switchyard Nurek Hydroelectric Power Plant” was signed by the German Development (KfW Entwicklungsbank) and Tajikistan’s Ministry of Finance (MoF) and Barqi Tojik power holding in Dushanbe on July 25, 2008.
On completion of reconstruction/rehabilitation of the 220-kV switchyard, reconstruction/rehabilitation of the 500-kV switchyard will start. The Asian Development Bank has provided US$54 million for the Nurek 500-kV Switchyard Reconstruction Project. Under the plan, the aging facility will be replaced using new compact Gas Insulated Switchgear, which will use about 10% of the area of the old switchyard. Most crucially, this will allow the new switchyard to be relocated to the smaller stable area of the plant.
The Norak Dam is an earth fill embankment dam on the Vakhsh River in Tajikistan. At 300 meters it is currently the tallest dam in the world. Construction of the dam began in 1961 and was completed in 1979, when Tajikistan was still a republic within the Soviet Union. The Norak Dam is uniquely constructed, with a central core of cement forming an impermeable barrier within a 300 meter-high rock and earth fill construction. The volume of the mound is 54 million m³. The dam includes nine hydroelectric generating units, the first commissioned in 1972 and the last in 1979.
A total of nine hydroelectric turbines are installed in the Norak Dam. Originally having a generating capacity of 300 megawatts each (2,700 megawatts total), they have since been redesigned and retrofitted such that they now combine to produce 3,000 megawatts. Units 1,2,3,4,6,7,8, and 9 now have capacity of 335 megawatts each and Unit 5 now has capacity of 320 megawatts.
