Irganai Dam is a hydroelectric dam in the Untskul region of Dagestan

Dagestan

The Republic of Dagestan is a federal subject of Russia, located in the North Caucasus region. Its capital and the largest city is Makhachkala, located at the center of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

. It is located on the river Avar Koisu.

History

Construction of the dam and power station started in 1977. The first generation unit of the Irganai hydropower station was launched in 1998. The second generation unit was launched in 2001.

Technical description

The dam is 111 metres (364.2 ft) high and 317 metres (1,040 ft) long at the crest. It is filled of gravel with asphalt-concrete diaphragm. The complex includes tunnel spillway, intake structure, two diversion tunnels 5.2 kilometres (3.2 mi) each, underground surge tanks, steel-reinforced concrete penstocks, and a powerhouse.

Irganai is the largest derivational hydroelectric power station in Russia, with two radial-axial hydraulic units with a capacity of 200 MW each.
The power station has a total installed capacity of 400 megawatts (MW) and projected capacity of 800 MW. Its mean annual electric energy output is 1,280 GWh.

The dam creates the Irganai reservoir. The reservoir has a surface area of 18 km² (6.9 sq mi). Its full capacity is 705000000 cubic metres (24,896,839,679.9 cu ft) and alive storage capacity is 397000000 cubic metres (14,019,922,486.4 cu ft).

The dam and power station is projected by Lenhydroproject

Lenhydroproject

Lenhydroproject is a major research and design institute for hydrotechnology and hydroelectric engineering based in St. Petersburg, Russia. Since 1993 it is incorporated as a "JSC Lenhydroproject", part of RusHydro company....

 and operated by RusHydro

RusHydro

RusHydro , previously known as Hydro-OGK, is a Russian hydroelectricity company. As of 2008 it has a capacity of 25 gigawatts. It is the world's second-largest hydroelectric power producer and is the country's largest power-generating company and the largest successor to RAO UES...

.

Incidents

On 7 September 2010, fire broke-out at power station's hall. On 9 September 2010, Russian security forces defused an explosive device equivalent to 3 kilograms (6.6 lb) of trinitrotoluene in the room. On 31 January 2011, a stick of dynamite

Dynamite

Dynamite is an explosive material based on nitroglycerin, initially using diatomaceous earth , or another absorbent substance such as powdered shells, clay, sawdust, or wood pulp. Dynamites using organic materials such as sawdust are less stable and such use has been generally discontinued...

was discovered at the power station.