DUSHANBE, June 29, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- Work on cementation of the run-of-river part of the dam at the Sangtuda-1 hydroelectric power plant (HPP) has been completed.

According to open joint-stock company (OJSC) Sangtudinskaya GES-1, which operates the Sangtuda-1 station, the cementation work has allowed to halve the natural filtration of water through the dam.  The cementation work has been carried out by specialists from the limited liability company, Geoizol, and closed joint-stock company, Chirkeygidrospetsstroy.  More than 20,000 tons of injections have been pumped into 393 holes drilled in the dam, the source said.

The director general of the OJSC Sangtudinskaya GES-1, Vladimir Belov, says the cementation work has allowed reducing a total discharge of seepage from 1.8-2.0 cubic meters per second to 0.93-0.95 cubic meters per second.  “The two-fold reduction in filtration ensures safe and long-term use of the dam and other hydropower facilities of the Sangtuda-1 station,” the director general said. 

Russia’s Inter RAO YeES and the Ministry of Energy and Industries of Tajikistan signed an agreement on the establishment of Russian-Tajik OJSC Sangtudinskaya GES-1 in Dushanbe on February 16, 2005.  The company was established to complete the construction of the Sangtuda-1 hydroelectric power plant (HPP) on the Vakhsh River.

President Emomali Rahmon and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev officially unveiled the fourth and last unit of the Sangtuda-1 HPP on July 31, 2009.

The construction of the Sangtuda-1 hydropower plant located some 110 kilometers southeast of Dushanbe began in the late 1980s.  By the early 1990s, only 20% of the construction work had been completed, and further construction was suspended due to a civil war that broke out in Tajikistan in the early 1990s.  The talks between Russia and Tajikistan on completing the construction of the Sangtuda-1 HPP began in 2003 and in 2004 the parties signed an inter-governmental agreement.

Russia retains a 75 percent share in the power plant, which generates a projected 2.7 billion kWh of electricity per annum.  The power station has an estimated capacity of 670 MW.

According to Sangtudinskaya GES-1, the station now accounts for some 15 percent of the overall volume of electricity produced in Tajikistan.