Hydropower in Russsia

Hydropower is one of the most efficient spheres of the electric power industry. Hydro-resources are renewable and the most environmentally friendly source of energy, use of which allows emissions into the atmosphere from thermal electric power plants to be reduced and reserves of hydrocarbon fuel to be saved for future generations. Apart from its immediate purpose – production of electric power – hydropower resolves a number of additional tasks of extreme importance for society and the state. The direct benefits include creation of drinking and industrial water supply systems, development of navigation, creation of irrigation systems for agricultural purposes, fish-breeding, and regulation of fluvial flow for the purpose of combating high water and floods and thereby ensuring the safety of the population. Hydropower constitutes an infrastructure for the activities and development of a whole series of vital branches of the economy and the country as a whole. Each hydro-electric power plant brought on line becomes an economic growth centre for the region in which it is located, with production facilities clustering around it, industry developing and new jobs being created.

Hydropower is the key element in ensuring reliability of the country’s Unified Energy System, possessing 90% of the capacity regulation reserves. Of all the existing types of electric power stations, it is HPPs that are the most maneuverable and capable, if necessary, of substantially increasing their output in just a few minutes and thus covering peak loads. For thermal power stations, this indicator means hours and for nuclear ones – several days. The very creation of the UES of Russia became possible precisely thanks to operation of the powerful HPPs of the Volga-Kama Cascade in the 1950s.

The Golden Age of Russia’s hydro-electric power industry was between 1930 and the 1990s. Previously, in Russia and the USSR, there had been only very few hydro-plants and the total installed capacity of turbogenerator units in the USSR was no more than 600,000 kWh in 1930. Sixty years later, our country was second only to the USA in terms of installed HPP capacity (65 million kWh) and came in after the USA and Canada only in terms of electric power produced by HPPs (233 billion kWh/year).

Russia now has 102 hydropower plants in operation, with a capacity of over 100 MW. The total installed capacity of HPP turbogenerator units in Russia today amounts to approximately 45 million kW (5th place in the world), with an output in the order of 165 billion kWh/year (also 5th place) – while HPP account for no more than 21% of Russia’s total electric power production. At the same time, in terms of hydropower resources economic potential Russia takes second place in the world (about 852 billion kWh, after China), but in terms of the degree of their development – 20% – it is way behind virtually all the developed countries and even many developing ones. The respective figures for France and Switzerland, for instance, are over 90%, for Canada and Norway – 70%, and for the USA and Brazil – 50%.

For the purpose of further development of Russia’s hydropower potential and of the country’s hydropower industry, which virtually stagnated during the 1990s, during the process of reforming Russian electric power industry, in December, 2004, the Federal Hydrogeneration Company (JSC RusHydro) was set up. The priority tasks set for JSC RusHydro by the government when it was incorporated are to ensure reliable and safe operation of existing HPPs, complete construction in progress and design and build new hydropower plants. As of today, the RusHydro holding includes 15 federal hydropower plants, among them the biggest one in Russia and, at the same time, Eurasia – Neporozhny Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP (6,400 MW), 8 stations of the Volga-Kama Cascade, with an aggregate installed capacity of over 8,680 MW, the first large hydropower plant in the Far East – the Zeiskaya HPP (1,330 MW), and a number of plants in the North Caucasus.

Russia’s second biggest hydropower plant in terms of installed capacity is the Krasnoyarskaya HPP (6,000 MW), controlled by companies affiliated with JSC RUSAL. The power generated by the plant is virtually all consumed by the Krasnoyarsk aluminum works, one of the biggest enterprises of its kind in the world.

Two other major Russian HPPs – the Bratskaya (4,500 MW) and the Ust-Ilimskaya (4,320 MW) – belong to JSC Irkutskenergo. The electric power they generate also goes to aluminum works within the RUSAL group.

The equipment of most Russian hydro-plants is over 40% obsolete and for some HPPs, this figures reaches 70%, this being connected with the system-wide problem of the entire hydropower industry of the last fifteen years – chronic underfinancing.