What is known about the disabled Dnieper hydroelectric station

On March 22, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported that at night a massive missile and drone attack was carried out on military and energy facilities in Ukraine. Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine statedthat the DneproGES is out of order. What is known about the damaged station is in the Kommersant certificate.

The Dnieper hydroelectric power station is the fifth stage of the Dnieper cascade of hydroelectric power stations. Its construction began in 1927 according to the state plan of the State Commission for Electrification of Russia (GOELRO). The creator of the project was the scientist Ivan Alexandrov, and the chief architect was Viktor Vesnin. The American company Hugh L. Cooper and Co. and the German Siemens also participated in the construction. Hugh Cooper was the main consultant on the project from the American side. More than 120 thousand people took part in the construction. The hydroelectric power station was launched in 1932 and became the largest such structure in the USSR and Europe. In 1939, the last hydraulic unit was launched, the station’s power reached 560 thousand kW.

In 1941, to prevent the use of the station by the army of Nazi Germany, the Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Station dam was blown up by Soviet troops. In addition, the hydraulic units of the structure were disabled. During the occupation of Zaporozhye, German engineers tried to restore the station. Prisoners of war were used as labor. During the German occupation, about 3 thousand people were executed at the Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Station. It was not possible to completely restore the station. German engineers were only able to start two generators, which could not operate at full capacity. At the end of 1943, when fascist troops were retreating from Zaporozhye, they blew up the machine room, the control panel, and all electrical equipment, but were unable to completely destroy the dam.

In 1944, restoration of the station began. In 1947, the restored hydraulic unit of the station began working. In 1950, the last, ninth unit was put into operation, DneproGES began supplying 3.5 billion kWh of electricity per year. In 1969, construction of DneproGES-2 began. By 1980, the total capacity of the united Dnieper HPP reached 1538.2 MW.

In 1994, the state Ukrainian company Dneprohydroenergo was created, which gained control of the station. Currently, the organization is called “Ukrhydroenergo” and continues to own the DneproHPP. In 1996, work began on the reconstruction of the station. They were carried out using loan money from the World Bank for Reconstruction and Development, a grant from the Swiss government and Ukrhydroenergo’s own funds. In 2007, the second stage of reconstruction began. By 2020, five hydraulic units had been updated and work continued on two more. It was assumed that the implementation of the second stage of reconstruction would increase the power of the station to 1610.6 MW.

In 2022, the capacity of the Dnieper HPP reached 1569 MW, this is the highest figure for the Dnieper cascade. The station produced more than 10% of the daily distribution of electricity in Ukraine both along the right and field banks of the Dnieper.

Since the beginning of the special military operation, Russian troops have struck the Dnieper hydroelectric station several times. October 31, 2022 about the attack on the DneproGES area reported member of the main council of the administration of the Zaporozhye region Vladimir Rogov. The media reported shelling of the station in December 2022 and February 2023.