DUSHANBE, March 18, 2014, Asia-Plus -- Ukrainian companies are continuing modernization of the Norak hydroelectric power plant (HPP).

According to Barqi Tojik (the state-owned utility responsible for generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity in Tajikistan), the modernization work is being carried without any problems.

“Specialists from DneprSpetsGidroEnergoMontazh are currently in Tajikistan to carry out installation work,” an official source at Barqi Tojik told Asia-Plus in an interview.

Cooperation with the Ukrainian company Turboatom, which has delivered spare parts for the Norak HPP, is also going on.

“Installation of the second set of the hydraulic equipment at Unit 8 was completed in 2013 and the third set of the hydraulic equipment is expected to be installed this year,” the source said. 

The Norak Dam is an earth fill embankment dam 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 1979, when Tajikistan was still a republic within the Soviet Union.  The Norak Dam is uniquely constructed, with a central core of cement forming an impermeable barrier within a 300 meter-high rock and earth fill construction. The volume of the mound is 54 million m³. The dam includes nine hydroelectric generating units, the first commissioned in 1972 and the last in 1979.

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.  Units 1,2,3,4,6,7,8, and 9 now have capacity of 335 megawatts each and Unit 5 now has capacity of 320 megawatts.