RusHydro has announced it is to start construction of the Krasnogorskaya-1 and Krasnogorskaya-2 small hydropower plants on the Kuban river in Karachay-Cherkessia Republic.
The two hydropower stations will each have an installed capacity of 24.9MW and annual output of 83.8GWh and will be built downstream from the company’s Zelenchukskaya hydro and pumped storage power plant. The new facilities are to be commissioned in 2021-2022.
The new facilities are expected to improve the hydrological regime of Kuban River, lifting limitations on capacity of Zelenchukskaya, which is currently set at 70MW. The regime optimization will add 230 GWh to output of Kuban Cascade annually.
“Development of renewable generation such as small hydro has always been an important part of the business for RusHydro,” explained Nikolay Shulginov, Chairman of the Management Board – General Director of RusHydro. “Within the year, we plan to commence construction of three small hydropower plants in the North Caucasus region and today we lay the foundation for construction of two Krasnogorskaya-1 and 2 small HPPs. Despite their small-scale these plants will have a significant positive impact on the power system of the Karachay-Cherkessia Republic”.
RusHydro is actively developing hydropower generation in Karachay-Cherkessia. In 2016, the company commissioned two hydropower units of Zelenchukskaya with capacity of 140/156MW (generation mode /pumping mode) and in 2018 commissioned a small hydropower plant on the Zelenchuk river with capacity of 1.2MW. Construction of the 5.6MW Ust-Dzhegutinskaya hydropower plant is in progress.
