Hydropower plants (HPPs) in Russia are about 25% of the total installed capacity of the energy system and produce up to 20% of electricity. There are huge power plants with a capacity of several gigawatts (in Siberia) as well as relatively small ones (with a capacity of several megawatts), including in Karelia and the North Caucasus.
The twenty-year lag (1985-2005) in investment activity in the Russian energy sector had a direct impact on the HPP design and construction industry, as well as on the power machine building industry. Some large construction projects started in the USSR were frozen. Designing of new HPPs was practically not carried out. For obvious reasons, the development of the global hydropower industry during these years had little impact on Russia, which during this period was mainly wasting the human resources accumulated during the Soviet years.
With the arrival of large-scale investments in the Russian hydropower industry in the mid-2000s, the industry had to be practically recreated. Foreign engineering companies and manufacturers of equipment for HPPs, who had accumulated considerable experience in the construction of HPPs and pumped-storage power plants (PSPPs) in Europe, China, South America, etc., became active participants in this process. There was also a certain narrow focus in the development of the Russian hydropower industry, which was set half a century ago: since the 1960s, the USSR has been designing and building mainly large HPPs (unit capacity of units of about 10 MW and higher). As a result, Russia had no experience in designing and manufacturing equipment for small HPPs, which in certain conditions are more cost-effective than large HPPs and do not require flooding vast areas. To solve this problem, the largest Russian generating companies operating in hydropower create joint ventures with European equipment manufacturers and try to adapt their basic designs to Russian conditions.
EF-TEK experts have been actively involved in the above processes since 2007, providing engineering services in the development of concepts and business plans for HPP construction, audits of already built/designed plants, support of tender procedures for the supply of hydropower equipment, etc. Our team has experience in working on hydropower projects in Russia (Siberia, North Caucasus, Tajikistan, Georgia and Turkey). Our team has experience with hydropower projects in Russia (Siberia, North Caucasus), Tajikistan, Georgia and Turkey. We are well acquainted with the experience of design and construction of hydropower plants in Germany and other European countries and are always ready to use the accumulated experience in the interests of our clients.