RusHydro confirms interest in completing Krapivinskaya hydro plant in Kuzbass
KEMEROVO. Nov 21 (Interfax) - RusHydro is still interested in the project to complete the Krapivinskaya hydropower plant in the Kuznetsk coal basin, the power company's head of strategy and development, Konstantin Yanko said at the Development of Kuzbass Productive Forces conference on Tuesday.
"We're planning [to complete the plant]. We've repeatedly approached the Energy Ministry, Economic Development Ministry, proposed our financial model. But we understand that without the designation of financing sources and mechanisms to recover [investment] we cannot begin designing and building at this point," Yanko said.
The cost of completing the project is 59.8 billion rubles in 2023 prices, not including value-added tax, according to his presentation. The creation of the reservoir as a federal asset will account for 23% of the cost, and the hydraulic structures will make up 30%. The reservoir requires state funding and the government must also make up its mind regarding the end client.
The dam will also require state cofinancing or the introduction of mechanisms to guarantee a return on investment, the presentation said.
Yanko said the plant will have three 115 MW hydro units with adjustable blade turbines, giving it overall capacity of 345 MW. The surface are of the reservoir will be 670 square km.
Construction of the Krapivinsky hydro system on the Tom River began in 1976, but was suspended in 1989, when it was about 50% complete, due to financing problems and protests from environmentalists. The installations of the unifinished plant are now on the books of state company VerkhneObregionvodkhoz.
Design institutes concluded in 2019-2022 that the plant could be completed using already built facilities. RusHydro reported that the main technical solutions for the project were received in 2021 and an environmental impact study was done in 2022.
RusHydro reached an agreement with the Kemerovo regional government to complete the Krapivinsky hydro system in February 2020, but there have not been any reports since about the company's plans to participate in the project.
Meanwhile, En+ Group announced in the fall of 2021 that it planned to build the Krapivinskaya HPP and put it into operation in 2026-2027. In April 2022, En+ confirmed it was prepared to complete the plant, but no longer gave a specific timeframe.
The chief engineer for the plant project, Alexander Zhevlakov of JSC Lengidroproyekt said the estimated cost of building the plant was 34.6 million rubles, not including VAT.
A cost estimate was also made for completing the plant using core hydropower and electrical equipment made by Power Machines, putting it at 45.07 billion rubles in 2019 prices, with VAT but without the cost of preparing the territory of the reservoir.