View of the Nizhny Novgorod (Gorky) Hydroelectric Station from the downstream side

Nizhny Novgorod Hydroelectric Station, Nizhny Novgorod (colloquial name: Gorky) HES — a dam designed for electricity generation Volga in the city of Zavolzhye. It holds back the Gorky Sea. The length of the spillway concrete dam is 291 m; the hydraulic-fill earthen dam is 18,600 meters. Equipped with eight generating units: Kaplan-type (adjustable-blade) turbines manufactured at the Leningrad Metal Plant, and generators produced at the Elektrosila Plant. Turbine diameter: 9 m. The station's turbine was commissioned on November 2, 1955.

Nature of the Phenomenon

The Gorky Hydroelectric Station was intended to form part of a cascade of hydraulic structures that would allow large nuclear-powered submarines — produced, in particular, at the Krasnoye Sormovo Plant — to pass through the Volga River.

In the USSR, this was the project for the longest operating dam in the country.

Current Specifications

Equipment

Turbine type: Kaplan (adjustable-blade) Number and model of turbines: 8×PL 510-VB-900 Flow rate through turbines, m³/s: 8×500 Number and model of hydrogenerators: 8×SV 1340/150-96 Hydrogenerator output, MW: 8×65

Locks

Double-lane, single-chamber.

Power Transmission

The following transmission lines run from the station:

  • 220 kV to the Vyazniki substation,
  • 220 kV to Manturovo (Zvezda substation) via Semyonov,
  • two 220 kV lines to Bolshoye Kozino (Luch substation) (Nizhny Novgorod)
  • 110 kV lines to Chkalovsk and further along the Volga bank to Kineshma.

Dam

Ownership: Volga-Kama Cascade Installed capacity, MW: 520 Average annual output, million kWh: 1,513 HES type: run-of-river dam Design head, m: 17

History

How the Gorky Hydroelectric Station Was Built

Construction of the Gorky hydraulic complex began in 1948. The head of the newspaper was modestly referred to as "Comrade Sery." Although the facility was medium-sized by national standards — compared, for instance, to the Volzhskaya HES — many called the Gorky station a "testing ground for technical innovations."

More than 15,000 people arrived at the construction site. They came as families, as Komsomol brigades, and lived in tents, barracks, and prefabricated houses. At the same time as the hydroelectric station was being built, the corresponding infrastructure to supply the construction site and support the workers' daily lives was also taking shape. This is why many enterprises in Gorodets and Zavolzhye owe their existence to GorkyGESstroy. The young city of Zavolzhye, known at the time among locals as "the city of energy workers," grew up on what had been swamps and forests.

8,500 private homes and more than 700 state-owned buildings were relocated to Zavolzhye and Gorodets from villages that fell within the flood zone.

Many of those who arrived in 1948 to build the dam had no idea how hard the work ahead of them would be.

Some, unable to endure it, left within a month. But those who stayed — and they were the majority — had by 1951 accomplished something truly remarkable: through their efforts, two residential microdistricts of the city had been built, complete with schools, a cinema, a House of Culture, a technical college, and a hospital.

In April 1951, the first cubic meter of concrete was laid on the site of the future station. The construction managers said: "Everything done before this day was merely preparation for this moment." According to eyewitnesses, not even the May Day parade had drawn such a crowd. Thousands of people — the construction workers themselves, residents of Gorodets, and guests from The City of Gorky, Pravdinsk — filled the grandstand built inside the excavation pit. On the bottom of the first block was placed a commemorative plaque bearing the inscription: "April 22, 1951 — the Gorky Hydroelectric Station was founded."

On August 24, 1955, the Volga riverbed was closed off. Now came the main push — preparing the station for launch. Only the builders themselves know what it took to honor their commitments and bring three generating units into service before the end of 1955. On November 2, 1955 — the date considered the birthday of the Nizhny Novgorod Hydroelectric Station — the first generating unit was started up and the station produced its first kilowatts of electricity.

On December 25, 1956, the eighth generating unit was launched, and the station's capacity reached 400 MW. In 1959, following reconstruction of the generator cooling system and reinforcement of turbine components, the total generator output was increased by 120 MW. The total installed capacity of the hydroelectric station thus reached 520 MW.

Construction Chronicle

  • November 16, 1947 — The USSR Government issued a decree on the construction of the Gorky Hydroelectric Station on the Volga, near the ancient town of Gorodets
  • May 1948 — Arrival of the first construction workers. More than 15,000 people converged on the vast construction site
  • 1948 — Seventeen prefabricated Finnish wooden houses with stove heating appeared in the temporary settlement. Most of the workers lived in tents forming a "Green Village" situated at the edge of a pine forest
  • October 1948 — Completion of the railway line from Pravdinsk station to the construction site
  • November 7, 1948 — The first train ran
  • Summer 1949 — After the Volozhka channel was dammed, upstream and downstream cofferdams for the spillway dam and the hydroelectric station building were hydraulically filled in the resulting calm backwater
  • October 1950 — Pumping out of the main structures' excavation pit
  • Spring 1951 — By decision of the regional Party committee (Obkom) and the regional Komsomol committee, 1,500 Komsomol members were sent to the construction site, and a large tent camp was set up in the area of the former Volozhka channel
  • April 22, 1951 — On the 81st anniversary of V. I. Lenin's birth, the first cubic meters of concrete were laid in the apron of the spillway dam. A commemorative plaque was placed on the bottom of the first block bearing the inscription: "April 22, 1951 — the Gorky Hydroelectric Station was founded"
  • October 12, 1951 — Approval of the technical design by the Ministry of Electric Power Stations (MES)
  • January 22, 1953 — Start of concrete placement in the construction of the hydroelectric station building
  • March 1953 — Start of concrete placement in Lock No. 13
  • December 1953 — Start of concrete placement in Lock No. 14
  • Summer 1955 — The complex of structures for Lock No. 14 is ready for operation
  • August 12, 1955 — Flooding of the excavation pit
  • August 14, 1955 — Opening of navigation through Lock No. 14 and the bypass channel. In a ceremonial atmosphere, the flagship steamship Volga, with guests and construction workers aboard, entered the open gates of the lock
  • August 24, 1955 — Closure of the Volga riverbed
  • October 8–25, 1955 — Filling of the reservoir from elevation 69 to 75.0 m
  • November 2, 1955 — The first generating unit of the Gorky Hydroelectric Station took on industrial load
  • December 25, 1956 — Launch of Unit 8 and commissioning of the station at its design capacity of 400,000 kW
  • 1956 — Opening of navigation at Lock No. 13
  • July 29, 1957 — Filling of the reservoir to the normal operating level (NOU)
  • December 21, 1959 — Following reconstruction of the generator cooling system and reinforcement of turbine components, the output of each generator was increased by 15 MW. The total installed capacity of the hydroelectric station thus reached 520 MW
  • November 29, 1961 — A government commission accepted the Gorky Hydroelectric Station for permanent operation
  • May 7, 1962 — By a decree of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR, the Gorky Hydroelectric Station was accepted for industrial operation

The Building of the Station in the Words of Nizhny Novgorod Residents

RusHydro, the history of the hydroelectric station through the people who built it

Indeed, judging by the entries in his employment record book, Grigory Ivanovich Kashin is not a power engineer. His main trade is driver. But the most memorable kilometers his timber trucks, light lorries, and dump trucks ever clocked were on the construction of the Gorky Hydroelectric Station from 1948 to 1957; he went on working at the HES until 1968.

"We came here at the call of the Gorky regional Komsomol committee. Everyone understood the importance of the cause — in the post-war years people genuinely dreamed of rebuilding the country as fast as possible. After all, the Komsomol members of that time were children of the war, no strangers to backbreaking labor. At ten or twelve years old, sometimes younger, boys plowed the fields, brought in the harvest, and went with their mothers to fell timber. How we endured it — hungry and cold — I don't know. Adults, one can understand, but where did children find such heroism..."

It was precisely the toughness forged by the war, the desire to recover from the devastation, the longing for a better life that gave people their strength. "Those who came to build the hydroelectric station were in a mood to create," says Grigory Ivanovich. "There were no comforts to speak of, yet people wanted to live as they never had before."

Yes, the conditions were spartan — at first they lived in barracks and tents, eight to twelve people to a tent.

The largest tent camp was pitched right on the site of the future reservoir, which meant the workers living there had almost no commute to speak of. The rest were less fortunate — they made their way to each shift through forests and swamps. But they were young and spirited, and nothing seemed to faze them. Well, almost nothing: one winter, the young constitution of a driver named Kashin let him down. He was repairing a vehicle out in the frost, lying on the frozen ground, and came away with pneumonia. To this day he is grateful to fate for that sick leave, because had he not fallen ill, he would likely never have met his wife, Nina Vasilyevna. The dark-eyed beauty of a nurse won him over with both her character and her cheerful disposition.

They married in May 1950, in what had been a school building — by then a stone school had been built, and people were housed in the old wooden one. There were few guests — about twelve. And though there were no wedding finery or lavish tables — pickled cucumbers, potatoes, fried fish, and a pie were the fare — the young couple were happier than anyone in the world.

The station and the town went up quickly. Within a year the Kashin family were moving into a new home. A two-room apartment with a wood-burning stove was given to them with the expectation of a growing family, and rightly so — in 1952 their first daughter was born. By that time Grigory had already become a leading worker, and was among those most trusted to lay the first concrete. He still recalls the scale of the work at the hydroelectric station with admiration.

"It was a remarkable sight — an enormous excavation pit, at the bottom of which tiny figures the size of a little finger were bustling about and machinery was moving. A railway line descended into that bowl, and wagons loaded with concrete and gravel rolled down it. But looking up from the bottom at the massive hydraulic structures, you marveled that all of it had been built by human hands. What you can see above the water now is only a small part. The density of workers was enormous, yet it seems God himself watched over the people — any serious trouble or accidents were the exception."

There was no shortage of examples of selfless dedication, however. Grigory Kuzmich remembers May Day 1955. There had been no flood like it in thirty years. Sudden and violent, the water rose to the very edge of the cofferdam protecting the excavation pits where the locks were being built. They waited for it to recede, but the Volga, against all forecasts, kept relentlessly pushing forward. On the first of May no one celebrated; a banner hung over the pit: "All strength to saving the lock!" The cofferdam was divided among everyone by the metre, with each section assigned its own guardian. A dredger ran without pause, dump trucks brought in sand, and young women carried sand in the folds of their skirts. Even so, at high noon the water ate through the barrier and poured into the pit. And then people threw themselves at the breach to block it — worker Kozlov, engineer Zosima Lvovich Sery, and others ran to the dump trucks for heavy sacks of cement and hurled them, hurled them into the maw of the flood. And so it went all day and all night, until the water finally retreated.

"People were close-knit... there were many different nationalities, yet everyone was equally united and friendly. And the bosses always talked to us simply, as equals — they were right there in the ranks with us." All the builders have always spoken with particular warmth about the chief engineer of GorkyGESstroy, Konstantin Vladimirovich Sevenard. He had a way with everyone — whether young workers or seasoned builders, he always found something to say, something to suggest. And when he went to work, it was not to the office but to the construction site; day and night he checked how things were going, how the concrete was behaving, what problems the workers had.

"The way I first met him," says Grigory Ivanovich, "was that they brought us kayaks for sport, but nobody knew how to handle them. I had a go, capsized about three times, and then I saw a man on the bank waving to me, offering to show me how to paddle the thing. I didn't know at the time that it was Konstantin Vladimirovich, but after that we greeted each other every time we met."

Chief engineer Sevenard also loved sport: he organized football teams from the various divisions, and on days off the whole town — or rather all the male population of it — disappeared to the town stadium, which was already built by 1953. There was amateur performance too, and homegrown "stars" of their own.

The guitarist Shatsky was known to every builder, and no celebration was complete without the tap-dancers Paramonov and Klochkov being called back for a third encore.

"There were no televisions — football and those celebrations were such a joy. It's a pity there's nothing like that now."

Current Status

On 19 February 1991, the Gorky Hydroelectric Station was renamed the Nizhny Novgorod Hydroelectric Station; in 1993 it was reorganized as the Open Joint-Stock Company "NizhGES," founded by RAO "UES of Russia." From 1 February 2004, the functions of the sole executive body of OAO "Nizhny Novgorod Hydroelectric Station" were transferred to OAO "Management Company Volga Hydropower Cascade" (a subsidiary of OAO "GidroOGK"). On 9 December 2003, OAO "Nizhny Novgorod Hydroelectric Station" was registered. On 9 January 2008, OAO "Nizhny Novgorod Hydroelectric Station" was liquidated upon its merger with OAO "GidroOGK," which was reorganized in 2008 as OAO "RusHydro."

Museum of the Nizhny Novgorod Hydroelectric Station

Opening of the Nizhny Novgorod Hydroelectric Station Museum. 31.01.08

On 29 January 2008, the hydropower museum welcomed its first visitors — the management of the branch of the "Open Joint-Stock Company of the Federal Hydro-Generating Company" — "Nizhny Novgorod Hydroelectric Station."

The museum's exhibition, developed according to the classical scheme — from history to the present day — vividly illustrated the development of the energy sector in Russia. The history of the construction of the Nizhny Novgorod Hydroelectric Station, its current state, and prospects for development are presented on display panels.

Decorative elements — such as a suspended ceiling imitating waves, light fixtures styled after electricity transmission pylons, and the shape of the display structures — helped create a distinctive, individual atmosphere within the museum.

Illuminated maps, working and architectural scale models, multimedia touchscreen kiosks, and turnstiles made it possible to present information in a variety of visual ways and to achieve a coherent and richly detailed exhibition.

Every exhibit in the collection is unique in its own way. For instance, the working scale model "Water Mill" takes us far back into the past and gives us a sense of the long journey the waterwheel had to travel before becoming a hydraulic turbine.

The official opening of the museum is scheduled for 22 March — World Water Day.

Contact Information

+7 83161 7 96 79, +7 83161 7 96 80 / fax.

Interesting Facts

  • Over 54 years of operation (as of 2009), the station has generated nearly 83 billion kWh of electricity.
  • Funding for the reconstruction of the Nizhny Novgorod Hydroelectric Station is partially provided through a loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

See Also