Ust-Ilimskaya hydro power station: photo, address. Construction of the Ust-Ilimskaya HPP

In the Irkutsk region on the Angara River is locatedone of the few hydropower plants in the country that has paid for itself before the end of construction. This is the Ust-Ilimskaya HPP, the third step in the cascade of stations on the Angara.

Angarsk Basin

Back in the 30s of the last century, scientists andRussian engineers are interested in studying the fuel-energy, mineral, forest resources of the Irkutsk region. To study the potential of this region, the Angarsk Bureau of the State Planning Committee of the USSR was established. It was in him that projects were born for the use of the river's water resource in several branches of energy-intensive production - chemical processing of timber, chemical industry, metallurgy and energy supply. In 1936, a decision was approved to build a cascade of six power plants on the Angara, the first and the upper of which was the Ust-Ilimskaya HPP.

Climatic features of the region

The region of construction of the hydropower unit is equivalent tothe territory of the Far North, where the climate is sharply continental. The average annual temperature is -2,8 ° C. In addition, absolute values ​​range from -53.9 ° C at a minimum to a maximum of + 41 ° C. The period with the temperature is below 0 - 214 days a year. The snow cover covers the ground in early October and does not come off until the end of March. The temperature in winter is -45 ° C, and the wind blows at a speed of up to 11 km / h.

Severe edge of the Irkutsk winter

The place where Ust-Ilimskaya HPP is located wasthe target is chosen 20 kilometers below the Ilim river near the rocky cape, which is called Tolsty. In 1962, the terms for the construction of the Ust-Ilimskaya HPP, the installed capacity and the schedule of preliminary works for the preparation of the infrastructure of the satellite city with the same name were determined. All construction work on the project was divided into two phases.

The first stage of construction

This is the stage of preparatory work. It lasted from 1963 to 1967. During this period, the construction site and auxiliary production facilities on the left bank of the Angara were prepared. And this is concrete and reinforcing factories, workshops for auto repair, a settlement for builders. A power transmission line was laid, and in 1966 a continuous through car passage was opened from the nearest major city center in Bryansk.

The second stage of the construction of the Ust-Ilimskaya HPP

March 1966 - the date of the beginning of the second stage andthe official start date for the construction of the hydrosystem. This stage lasted seven years. And the first blockage of the Angara took place already in February 1967. It was a grandiose construction at a very fast pace. The maximum speed of dump trucks, work in one and a half shifts and lunches in the workplace - and in 2 years and 7 months the last cave block of a deaf dam. Looking at the photo of Ust-Ilimskaya HPP, it's hard to believe in such terms of construction.

First result

In 1968, the installation of concrete in the dam began. From 1974 to 1977, the Ust-Ilim reservoir continued to be filled. And in the same year 1974 the first unit of the plant was commissioned, and in May 1975 the hydroelectric power plant produced the first billion kilowatt-hours. For four years, four units were put into operation. With the launch of the 15th unit, Ust-Ilimskaya HPP started operating at full capacity in the first stage - 3600 MW. And in 1979, the 16th aggregate was commissioned, in 1980 the hydroelectric complex entered into permanent operation.

Parameters and characteristics

The installed capacity of the Ust-Ilimskaya HPP is 4.3GW, which is comparable to the parameters of the Bratsk HPP. On average, the station generates 21.7 billion kW / h per year. All 16 units of the station have a capacity of 240 MW, operate at a head of water of 90.7 meters. The pressure front, 3.84 km long, forms the eponymous reservoir with an area of ​​1922 square kilometers of water surface and a water volume of 59.2 cubic meters. km.

Water-retaining features

The barrier to the water of the Angara forms a gravitationala dam 105 meters high and a length of 1475 meters. It consists of 365 meters of a stationary part, 242 meters of a drain dam and deaf coastal dams. The left-bank part of the dam is rock-earth, its length is 1780 meters and its height is 28 meters. On the right bank, the dam is sandy, its height is 47 meters, and its length is 538 meters. The height of the upper tail is 296 meters, there are no navigable sluices, but a ship lift is planned.

Energy value

The fourth in terms of capacity in Russia, Ust-Ilimskaya HPP- an important link in the energy system of Siberia. Metallurgical and forestry enterprises of the region are the main consumers of its electricity. It was the construction of this station, the first in the cascade of the Angara hydroelectric power stations, that enabled the development of the Ust-Ilimsky territorial production complex. Today, there are restrictions on the issuance of power, the station on average gives output of 32.3% of the declared. Nevertheless, it remains an important object of the energy system of Russia.

Modern aggregates

All the units, recall, their sixteen,worked for more than 40 years. The project of the station provides for two more units, under them water lines are laid and a place is left. But sixteen at the time of commissioning the station was enough. In 2017, the rotors of four units were replaced, which would increase electricity generation by 4.5%. The new wheels are made at the Leningrad Metal Plant of the concern "Power Machines" and weigh 83 tons. And the way from the plant to the station on the Russian roads took almost four months and amounted to about 7 thousand kilometers. One of the old wheels will be put on the pedestal as a memorable sign.

Satellite City

From a small village for hydro-buildersUst-Ilimsk grew into a major municipal center of the Irkutsk region with a population of 82,820 people. And the pride of the residents is the Ust-Ilimsk hydropower station, whose address is: 666683, Irkutsk Region, Ust-Ilimsk, PO Box 958. It is the city of three shock construction sites of the former Soviet Union: the city itself, a hydroelectric power station and a timber industry complex. It is a city of taiga romance of the 60s and 70s of the last century, about which Alexandra Pakhmutova sang in a song, known at one time to the whole country, "Letter to Ust-Ilimsk".

Ust-Ilimskaya HPP in art

In addition to the mentioned song performed by MayaKristalinskaya (1963), fame of the city brought the novel by Alexander Vampilov "Ticket to Ust-Ilimsk", which describes the history of this shock building. Children's film "The Fifth Quarter", filmed in 1972, about the thirteen-year-old resident of Leningrad, Anton, who instead of going on a summer vacation to the sea came to his brother-hydrostructure in Ust-Ilimsk, dedicated the children's population of the country in particular to the life and heroism of taiga builders.

And although modern youth do not know whoMaya Kristalinskaya and Alexandra Pakhmutova, but the city's residents are proud of their dynasties of hydro construction and the heroic shock history of their lands. And Ust-Ilimskaya HPP continues to amaze with its grandeur and scale all those who first saw this miracle of engineering thought, will and striving to achieve goals by a person surrounded by the taiga nature of this severe region.