HPP Zhigulevskaya: history, photo

Zhigulevskaya HPP was a dream of the Soviet government at the very dawn of the country's formation. The implementation of the plans began in the 1930s, and a large-scale construction was completed in record time after the Great Patriotic War. The history of the Zhigulevskaya HPP is one of the pages of the industrialization of the USSR and the energy security of Russia.

From idea to start

The idea of building Zhigulevskaya HPP in 1910 was submitted to the tsarist government by the Samara engineer GM Krzhizhanovsky. It was made only after the revolution, when the GOELRO plan was approved, initiated by the same engineer, but already in the status of the chairman of the electrification commission.

In the early 30's in the area located near the village of Krasnye Luki, exploration work began to develop the energy potential of the Volga. The result was a proposal to build the Kuibyshev HPP, where it was possible to equip three points for the start of work. The first construction site appeared near the village of Krasnye Luki. To ensure a large-scale project Zhigulevskaya HPP was built headquarters. But already in 1940, on the site of the proposed location of the station, oil deposits were discovered, and the construction was frozen.

After the war

In the post-war period, additional geological exploration work was carried out by the Hydroproject Institute. A suitable playground was found near the city of Zhigulevsk. ч . According to the project approved in 1949, the capacity of the Zhigulevskaya HPP was set at 2.1 million kWh .

Construction began in 1950 and immediately acquired a large scale. To implement the plans, about 50 construction and assembly enterprises involved in almost all the ministries of the country were involved. About 130 institutes and design bureaus took part in the design of the units and premises, more than 1,300 plants were involved in the supply of equipment and components. The head of the construction of the facility was appointed IV Komzin, who received the title of Hero of Socialist Labor for the development and implementation of a large-scale project.

Stages of construction

HPP Zhigulevskaya - a large post-war facility, which required a weakened economy to mobilize a large number of labor and resources. The question of human resources was solved quite harshly: most of the builders were prisoners, they were established for the maintenance of the Kuneiv ITL, which was subordinated to Glavgidrostroy of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Filling of the stone from the right bank of the Volga to erect a dam was started in the winter of 1950. The official start date of construction is February 18, 1951, when the first soil was removed from the zone of the future pit. HPP Zhigulevskaya was an exhibition construction. To implement and accelerate the pace of work on the site, the entire advanced technology was pulled down at that time.

In July 1951, the construction of lower sluices and a powerful concrete plant began on the left bank of the river. In the spring of 1952, the construction of a spillway of eight kilometers was started, and in the summer it was time to build the upper locks of the hydroelectric complex for shipping. In December of the same year, a hospital complex was commissioned.

Shock Rates

HPP Zhigulevskaya was built at shock rates, sometimes up to 20 thousand cubic meters of concrete were laid for a day of work, which was a record even according to world standards. In December 1952, work began on concreting the bottom of the lower locks, two months later, the cultural life of the builders was filled-a new club of oil workers was commissioned in the village of Solnechnaya Polyana.

In April 1953, a stone-slab plant began to operate, the products of which began to be used in the construction of a hydroelectric power station on July 30. The foundation of the entire plate of the Zhigulevskaya HPP was ready in July 1954. In the history of construction, the most important moment came - the creation of a dam. The start was given on August 15, 1955, the overlap began from the left bank of the Volga, the earthen dam was washed for 2 months. In October, the waters of the river were planted in the pit.

The overlap of the river from the right bank was completed in record time, it took specialists a little over 19 hours for a very complicated operation. Over the next two weeks, work was carried out to eliminate minor deficiencies in the body of the dam. In November 1955, the water began to fill the Kuibyshev Reservoir.

The design level of water in it was reached only in June 1957. At the time of achieving operational capacity, the Kuibyshev Reservoir was the largest in the world - the area occupied about 6 thousand square kilometers, the length - 510 meters, the width in some places reached 27 kilometers.

Highscores

The history of the Zhigulevskaya HPP in July 1955 was marked by the passage of the first vessel through the lower ship locks. In November, the main Volga channel overlapped, in December the first hydraulic unit was completed and its commercial operation began. During the 1956-1957 period, the remaining eleven hydroelectric units were launched. The first billion kilowatt hours were received in October 1956. The completion date of the main stage of construction is October 14, 1957, when all the turbines of the hydroelectric power station have already produced an industrial current.

Installation of each turbine with a capacity of 150 thousand MW took about a month, after putting them into operation, it was found out that the power generated by turbines reaches 115 MW. As a result, the units were re-labeled, and the installed capacity of the hydroelectric power plant increased to 2.3 GW.

All further efforts were directed to the construction of administrative, economic buildings of the station infrastructure and social facilities of Zhigulevsk and Stavropol. HPP Zhigulevskaya - a unique structure, the entire hydroelectric complex was built for seven years. During this period, nearly 200 million cubic meters of excavation work was done, about 8 million cubic meters of concrete were laid, 200 thousand tons of metal structures and equipment were installed.

Exploitation

Zhigulevskaya HPP was officially opened on August 9, 1958 in a solemn atmosphere and in the presence of the first persons of the USSR. The next day the station was renamed into Volzhskaya HPP with the appropriation of the name of Lenin. Many participants in the construction received government awards. The prisoners who were working on the construction were released under the amnesty, some of them were reduced the terms of serving their sentence.

By the beginning of August 1966, HPP Zhigulevskaya had produced a jubilee 100 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity. In the same period, systematic automation of all control processes at the station took place, until the end of the 1970s, a large-scale modernization of the equipment was carried out.

With the change in the economic system in 1993, the status of the station also changed: as a result of the reorganization, the company became an open joint stock company. In 2001, the Zhigulevskaya HPP became part of the Volga Hydro Power Cascade Company. Since 2003, the hydroelectric power plant is a supplier of electricity to the wholesale market, where it sells up to 15% of all generated energy, the remaining resources are supplied to the regulated federal market.

Modernity

To date, the owner of the station is the holding company "RusHydro". Zhigulevskaya HPP is a channel hydroelectric power station, all facilities of which belong to the first class of capital. The infrastructure includes:

• The earth dam is 52 meters high (width - 750 m, length - 2800 m).
• The building of the HPP station is 700 meters long.
• The spillway dam is 980 meters long.
• Shipping locks.

The height of the Zhigulevskaya HPP in the dam is 40.15 meters, the building of the HPP has a height of 81.1 meters. On the upper part of the dam the railway and highway are laid with the message Moscow-Samara. ч . The station's capacity is 2,320 MW, the average annual output of electricity is at the level of 10.5 billion kWh . ч , и 4 машины мощностью 120 МВт⋅ ч . The engine room is equipped with 20 hydraulic units of rotary-lobe type, 14 of which have a capacity of 115 MW- h , and 4 machines with a capacity of 120 MW- h .

Modernization

In 2010, RusHydro signed a contract with Power Machines to upgrade hydroelectric generators. By June 2017, 19 machines had been updated, the completion of the whole complex of events is planned for November 2017. The measures taken to update the funds will increase the plant's capacity to 2,488 MW.

As in the beginning of construction, so today the power of the Zhigulevskaya HPP structures strikes the imagination. Photo of the station, the dam and the whole complex of the hydroelectric complex inspire respect for the genius of designers and builders.