The 5.25MW Barsuchkovskaya small hydropower plant in the Stavropol region of Russia has been commissioned, RusHydro has announced.

Construction of the facility was completed on 30 November 30 and the power plant received the necessary documentation to begin operations on 1 December 2020. Its average annual clean electricity output stands at 24GWh.

Barsuchkovskaya small hydropower plant is located near Nevinnomyssk on the Great Stavropol Canal. In order to create pressure on the turbines, the facility utilizes the dam’s compensation reservoir of Kubanskaya HPP-4 which provides water supply to Nevinnomysskaya GRES. Such engineering solution helps reduce construction costs and improve efficiency of water resources as Barsuchkovskaya uses water previously discharged from the spillway of the hydroelectric complex.

Hydroproject Institute has engineered the facility while Hydroremont-VKK and ChirkeyHPPStroi, both part of RusHydro Group, were responsible for construction of the plant.

Barsuchkovskaya is equipped with three 1.75MW horizontal hydropower units with radial-axial turbines rated at 12.7m. The electricity is supplied into the power system via 35 kV power lines.

The hydropower plant is one of seven small-scale hydropower plants constructed by RusHydro in the North Caucasus Federal District as the region provides ideal natural conditions for small-scale hydro development. All facilities (Verkhnebalkarskaya, Ust-Dzhegutinskaya, Barsuchkovskaya, Karasnogorskaya 1 and 2 and planned for construction small HPP Bashennaya and Psygansu) are built with guaranteed return on investment under capacity supply agreements (DPM) for renewables.

Total installed capacity of hydropower plants operating in Stavropol region is 481.8 MW including 10 hydropower plants as well as Kubanskaya – the first pumped storage power plant constructed in Russia.