DUSHANBE, October 29, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- The Kharkov-based open joint-stock company (OJSC) Turboatom will manufacture seven water wheels for the Norak hydroelectric power plant (HPP), Nozirjon Yodgori, a spokesman for Barqi Tojik power holding, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.

According to him, an appropriate agreement on this subject was signed between Barqi Tojik and Turboatom in early October already.  “The Kharkov company will produce seven water wheels and spare parts fort them and under the contract, they will deliver two water wheels to Tajikistan per year,” Yodqori said.  He refrained from saying what exact cost of the project is, noting that it is a commercial classified information.

We will recall that the first two water wheels for the Norak HPP have been manufactured at the scientific production association in Sumy, Ukraine and they have already been delivered to Tajikistan.  One of them was installed at Unit 3 of the station in mid-July this year.  The second 82-ton water wheel was shipped to Dushanbe on October 13 this year.

Replacement of the water wheel at Unit 3 reportedly allowed increasing the station capacity by 160 megawatt.

The Norak Dam is a large earth fill dam located on the Vakhsh River.  At 300 meters it is currently the tallest dam in the world.  Construction of the dam began in 1961 and was completed in 1980, when Tajikistan was still a republic within the Soviet Union.

A total of nine hydroelectric turbines are installed in the Norak Dam. Originally having a generating capacity of 300 megawatts each (2,700 megawatts total), they have since been redesigned and retrofitted such that they now combine to produce 3,000 megawatts.  The station’s capacity is 11.2 billion kWh of electrical power per year.