Boris Enov
Managing Director, EDIN Engineering
When looking at small hydropower in the Russian Federation it is important to look back at its history. The first Russian hydroelectric installation (which is what hydroelectric power plants were called at that time) was built in Altai on the River Berezovka in 1882, and was designed by the mining engineer N.N. Koksharov. It was a four-turbine 180 kW plant, generating electricity for the bilge pumps at the Zyryanovsky Mine. The plant was closed down in 1932 due to wear and tear, having been in operation for 50 years.
On 11 May 1903, foundations were laid for a hydroelectric power plant on the River Podkumok near Essentuki in the Caucasus. The plant was large for its time (700 kW), and was given the name “White Coal”. It was designed by M.A. Shatelen, a Professor at the St Petersburg Polytechnic Institute, together with the famous power engineer G.O. Graftio. It generated electricity for four health resorts with street lighting provided by 400 arc lamps and incandescent lighting for over 3,000 households, and powered thirty motors with total capacity of up to 100 HP, driving the pumps supplying the healing mineral waters to the sanatoria. In addition, this early member of Russia’s nascent energy industry provided the motor power for what was then the latest marvel of technology – the trams in Pyatigorsk and Kislovodsk.
In 1911, the Caucasus Mineral Waters Directorate decided to build the region’s second diesel power station. It was built in Pyatigorsk and commissioned two years later. But long before then Professor Shatelen had looked into the possibility of combining two seemingly incompatible projects: the parallel operation of hydroelectric and thermal power plants, which would increase their power. The experiment, carried out with the “White Coal” and the Pyatigorsk plants, proved successful, with the plants working steadily and efficiently. They formed one of the first electric grids in Russia, 20 km long and operating at a voltage of 8 kV.
The Porozhskaya hydroelectric power plant, with its two 550 kW turbines, was put into operation in 1910, and this year celebrated a centenary of trouble-free operation. It was designed by Boris Aleksandrovich Bakhmetiev, a renowned engineer who graduated from the St Petersburg Railway Institute and went on to become a Professor at the St Petersburg Polytechnic Institute and subsequently at Columbia University. Its unique claim to fame is that it is still operating with its original components, demonstrating the remarkable service life of the equipment. The arch-gravity dam, constructed of stone and cement mortar, designed by Prof. Bakhmetiev and built under the supervision of the mining engineer A.F. Shuppe, is still in working condition, although now needing repair. Its equipment, supplied by German, Swiss, Austrian and Russian manufacturers, and still in working order, and the clever design, merging harmoniously with the surrounding mountain landscape, has resulted in its being granted the status of an engineering monument by the Chelyabinsk Province.
The Administration of the Province has now nominated the Porozhskaya hydroelectric power plant as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
By 1917, the total capacity of Russia’s then existing 78 hydroelectric power plants was about 16 000 kW, with the largest one, Murgabskaya, capable of generating 1 000 kW. In addition, there were up to 2 000 small mechanically driven hydro turbine generator units with total capacity of about 90 000 kW, and about 40 000 water mills with an average output of about 10 HP each.
It must be remembered that all these power stations were owned either by joint stock companies, limited partnerships, monasteries, or the Cabinet, i.e. the Imperial Family, so that until the October Revolution all Russia’s hydroelectric plants were built with private money.
The situation remained unchanged after the introduction of the New Economic Policy (NEP). When the Bolsheviks, who had seized power in Russia, understood that they could not get the economy, which was destroyed in the First World War and in the Civil War which followed, back on its feet, they introduced some elements of a capitalist system. This resulted in 47 small hydroelectric power plants with a total capacity of 1.6 000 kW being commissioned and built in 1919 alone. Among the first to be built in the countryside was the 48 kW Yaropoletskaya hydroelectric power plant – one of a cascade of five plants on the River Lama near Moscow.
Small hydropower developed in Russia in two qualitatively different stages:
» (1919-1945) – The energy of small water-courses was harnessed by hydroelectric power plants with outputs of several dozen kW, with small rural hydropower plants built to serve one or several collective farms. A total of about 950 small hydroelectric power plants with a total capacity of about 32 000 kW and an average of 35 kW were built up to 1941;
» (1945-1969) – Large, state-owned hydroelectric power plants (1 – 10 000 kW), operating in local power systems, were built during this period. In 1951-1953 alone, 111 public service hydroelectric power plants with average capacity of 440 kW were built in the countryside, as well as 116 plants serving groups of collective farms, with an average capacity of 300 kW each.
By 1954, the count of small hydropower plants had reached its maximum: there were 6614 plants with total capacity of 322 000 kW, supplying 24% of rural demand. However, when in that year rural consumers were allowed to connect to the main grid, small hydroelectric power plants stopped being built, and many successfully operating ones were shut down.
Table 1
This was due to the very low prices for electricity from the main grid, which made the existing small hydroelectric power plants uncompetitive. The main reasons for this lack of competitiveness were their poor design and the lack of skilled builders, equipment manufacturers and operators. The country had no companies specializing in the manufacture of equipment for small hydropower plants.
Most of the plants of that period suffered from the same shortcomings:
» They made insufficient use of the river flow in the central regions the country (some plants had a river flow utilization factor of only 0.3-0.4 outside high water periods and supplied only 0.6-0.7 of consumer demand):
» They shut down completely during high water periods when the water levels in the upper and lower pools equalised;
» Load fluctuations lead to abrupt changes in their voltage and frequency.
As a result, Russia now has only about 300 small hydropower plants with a total capacity of about 1 300 000 kW. Nevertheless, with electricity prices increasing year by year, interest in the construction of small hydroelectric power stations is reaching new highs, aided by the recent appearance of quite a number of specialist firms designing and manufacturing SHP equipment, offering good performance and a high level of automatic control.
They include the St. Petersburg companies CJSC MNPO INSET, MPO RAND and CJSC Gidroenergoprom, the Moscow company CJSC MAGI-E the Syzran company CJSC Tyazhmash and others. They manufacture micro and small hydropower plant equipment with installed power of 45 kW – 30 MW, suitable for most heads and water flows. Much of the equipment is produced in modular form, reducing assembly and operating costs.
Nevertheless, obstacles to the development of the domestic SHP industry do exist. Chief among them is the lack of long-term financing for construction projects, whose clients are predominantly regional and municipal authorities wishing to use the electricity to reduce their budget expenditure. No finance is provided by the Federal Budget, while banks and leasing companies are unwilling to become involved in the construction of small hydropower plants because of the long payback time.
However, the greatest disincentive is the length of the process of land allocation for the construction of small hydropower plants and the difficulty of obtaining bureaucratic approvals of plant designs, which can take as much as 5 years. In addition, in some regions the grid companies set unduly high technical requirements for connecting the plants to the grid.
However, as noted above, small hydropower plants will continue to be of interest to private capital. Even today, payback times for Russian-manufactured small hydropower plants are 4-5 years, and as the wholesale and retail cost of electricity increases, it can be expected that in 2-3 years’ time they will become up to 1.5 times shorter, making the projects attractive for small and medium-sized business.
The Russian government supports small hydropower. It has published Decree No. 1-r of 8.01.2009, “On the Main Trends of National Energy Policy aimed at Increasing the Energy Efficiency of Electric Power Generation through the Use of Renewable Energy Sources during the Period up to 2020.” The Decree sets targets for electricity generation from renewable sources, aiming at an increase from the present 1% of the total to 4.5 % in 2020. As is well known, in Russia SHP accounts for up to 80% of the use of renewable energy sources.
Pic. 1: A view of the Porozhskaya Hydroelectric Power Plant
These are ambitious targets, higher than those set by Directive 2009/28/EC for some EU countries for the same period. Their achievement will require the construction of additional small hydropower plants to provide approximately 8,000 MW of installed power. This implies upgrading plant construction facilities, creating new jobs and involving a large number of domestic and foreign investors.
To reach these targets by 2010, a Small Hydropower Association was founded in Russia last March with the approval of RF Ministry of Energy. The Association unites a number of Russian institutions with an interest in developing small hydropower. It has been working on programmes and mechanisms for involving Russian and foreign investors and specialists in the implementation of the Decree.
This will require setting up small companies specialising in electricity generation by small hydropower plants, some of which could be built with the participation of foreign specialists and organisations. Such projects, provisionally called “joint implementation projects” are designed for implementation over a period of 10-15 years. A detailed discussion of their content will appear in the next issue.
Pic. 2: Automation of a small Hydroelectric Power Station
