Volga Hydroelectric Power Plant

(full name, V. I. Lenin Volga Hydroelectric Power Plant), one of the largest hydroelectric power plants in the world, located on the Volga River in the northern part of Samarskaia Luka above the city of Kuibyshev. Installed capacity is 2.3 hectowatts (2.3 million kilowatts), and its average annual electric power output is 11 billion kilowatt-hours.

Construction of the Lenin Volga Hydroelectric Power Plant began in 1950: the first unit was in use in 1955, and the plant was put into operation for industrial use in 1957. The hydrosystem includes a flattened section concrete spillway dam, approximately 1,000 m long with a 30 m maximum head and 38 spillway openings; a hydraulic-fill earth dam 2,800 m long; a combined power plant building and waste-retaining structure 600 m long; two double-screw locks separated by an intermediate water area; access canals; and a mechanically operated port. A railroad line and highway run across the hydrosystem structure. The body of water confined by the hydrosystem is called the Kuibyshev Reservoir. The power plant building houses 20 vertical hydrogenerators rated at 115 megawatts (115,000 kW) with rotary blade hydroturbines. The electric power generated by the station is transmitted over 110, 220, and 500 kilovolt (kV) power lines. In 1956 a 400 kV (later converted to 500 kV) long-distance electric power line, the first of its kind in the USSR, was built between the power plant and Moscow. A 500 kV transmission line connects the power plant to the consolidated power system in the Urals. The station also supplies electric power to regions along the Volga. The power plant is one of the key bearing points in the Unified Power System in the European part of the USSR.

(full name, Volga Twenty-second Congress of the CPSU Hydroelectric Power Plant), one of the largest hydroelectric power plants in the world; located on the lower course of the Volga River north of Volgograd. The plant has an installed capacity of 2.54 gigawatts (2.54 million kilowatts) and an average annual power output of 11.1 billion kilowatt-hours. Construction began in 1951, the first three generator units were started up in 1958, and the last unit (the 22nd generator) went into operation in 1962. The hydraulic-engineering complex consists of a flat-profile concrete spillway dam 725 m long, with a maximum head of 27 m and 27 spillway openings; an earthen hydraulic-fill dam 3,375 m long; a combined power station building 664 m long, with a waste-retaining structure; a two-lane double-lift lock with an outer harbor upstream and a 5.6-km access canal downstream; the Volga-Akhtuua canal; and a fish ladder. A railroad and highway cross the Volga River on the structures of the complex. The backwaters form the Volgograd Reservoir. The power plant houses 22 vertical generator units with a capacity of 115 megawatts (115,000 kilowatts) each. An 11-megawatt generator unit is installed on the fish ladder.

The Volga Hydroelectric Power Plant is one of the key stations in the Unified Power System of the European USSR. Electric power generated by the hydroelectric power plant is transmitted over 500-kilovolt (kV) power lines to Moscow, over 800-kV DC lines to the power system of the south, and over 220-kV power lines to areas of the Volga Region. The complex provides an integrated solution to the problems of power supply, irrigation, and watering of the arid lands in the Trans-Volga Region and the Caspian lowlands and provides a deep-water route for the entire distance between Saratov and Astrakhan.