On October 24, President of the Republic of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon put into operation Unit 1 at Tursun Uljaboev Nurek hydropower plant and reviewed the progress of reconstruction works on this giant hydropower facility during his visit to Nurek. Reconstruction works on the hydropower plant began in March 2019, the press office of the President of Tajikistan reported to CentralAsia.news.
The reconstruction project is to be implemented in two phases. It envisages reconstructing 3 units in the first phase and 6 units with main and auxiliary equipment in the second phase. It is planned to upgrade plant equipment, 3 electrical grids of the underground complex, sluice gates, bases and the plant management and control system and replace 27 cranes and elevators. The downstream dam and water turbines are to be repaired in the first phase.
Unit 1 of the hydropower plant has been repaired and is operating in test mode for the past 3 months. Its capacity is 375 MW. After inspecting the facility, the Tajik leader said it meets the requirements.
The project will allow increasing the capacity of the hydropower plant by 375 MW and the average annual electricity generation capacity by 1.4 billion kWh. Before the project was launched, the hydropower plant had the capacity of 3,000 MW and the average annual electricity generation capacity of 11.2 billion kWh.