In the Irkutsk region on the Angara River is one of the few hydropower plants in the country, which has paid for itself even before the end of construction. This is the Ust-Ilim hydroelectric station, the third step in the cascade of stations on the Angara.
Angara basin
Back in the 30s of the last century, scientists and engineers of Russia became interested in studying the fuel and energy, mineral, forest resources of the Irkutsk region. To study the potential of this region, the Angarsk Bureau of the USSR State Planning Commission was created. It was in him that the projects for the use of the river’s water resource in several branches of energy-intensive production were born - chemical processing of wood, chemical industry, metallurgy and energy supply. In 1936, a decision was approved on the construction of a cascade of six power plants on the Angara, the first and highest of which was the Ust-Ilim Hydroelectric Power Station.
Climatic features of the region
The region of construction of the hydroelectric complex is equivalent to the 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. A period with a temperature below 0 - 214 days a year. Snow cover covers the ground in early October and does not disappear 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.
The harsh land of Irkutsk winters
The site where the Ust-Ilim Hydroelectric Power Station is located was chosen 20 kilometers below the Ilim River near the rocky cape, which is called Tolstoy. In 1962, the deadlines for the construction of the Ust-Ilim Hydroelectric Power Station, the installed capacity and the schedule of preliminary work on the preparation of the infrastructure of the satellite city of the same name were determined. All construction work on the project was divided into two stages.
First phase of construction
This is the stage of preparatory work. It lasted from 1963 to 1967. During this period, a construction site and auxiliary production facilities on the left bank of the Angara were prepared. And this is concrete and reinforcement plants, auto repair shops, a village for builders. A power line was laid, and in 1966 a continuous through road passage from the nearest major city center of Bryansk was opened.
The second phase of the construction of the Ust-Ilim hydroelectric station
March 1966 - the start date of the second stage and the official start date for the construction of the waterworks directly. This phase lasted seven years. And the first overlap of the Angara took place in February 1967. It was a grand construction at a very fast pace. The maximum speed of dump trucks, work in one and a half shifts and lunches at the workplace - and after 2 years and 7 months the last rock block of the dead dam. Looking at the photos of the Ust-Ilim HPP, it is difficult to believe in such a construction time.
First result
In 1968, concrete began laying in the dam. From 1974 to 1977, the filling of the Ust-Ilim reservoir continued. And in the same 1974, the first unit of the station was launched, and in May 1975 the hydroelectric power station produced the first billion kilowatts per hour. For four years, four units were commissioned. With the launch of the 15th unit, the Ust-Ilimskaya hydroelectric power station started operating at full capacity in the first stage - 3,600 MW. And in 1979, the 16th unit was launched; in 1980, the hydropower plant went into continuous operation.
Parameters and characteristics
The installed capacity of the Ust-Ilimsk hydroelectric station is 4.3 GW, which is comparable with the parameters of the Bratsk hydroelectric station. On average, the plant produces 21.7 billion kWh per year. All 16 units of the station have a capacity of 240 MW, operate at a water pressure of 90.7 meters. The pressure front, 3.84 km long, forms the reservoir of the same name with an area of 1922 square kilometers and a water volume of 59.2 cubic meters. km
Water features
An Angara water barrier is formed by a gravitational dam 105 meters high and 1,475 meters long. 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 stone-earthen, 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 pool is 296 meters, there are no navigable locks, but a ship-lift is planned.
Energy value
The fourth most powerful in Russia, the Ust-Ilim HPP is an important link in the power 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 Angarsk hydroelectric power stations, that made it possible to develop the Ust-Ilimsk territorial-production complex. Today, there are restrictions on the delivery of power, the station produces an average of 32.3% of the declared output. Nevertheless, it remains an important object of the Russian energy system.
Modern units
All units, recall, there are sixteen of them, have worked for almost more than 40 years. The design of the station provides for two more units, water conduits are laid under them and a place is left. But sixteen at the time of commissioning the station was enough. In 2017, the impellers of four units were replaced, which will increase electricity generation by 4.5%. New wheels were made at the Leningrad Metal Plant of the Power Machines concern and weigh 83 tons. And the journey from the plant to the station along the Russian roads took almost four months and amounted to about 7 thousand kilometers. One of the old wheels will be put on a pedestal as a memorial sign.
Satellite city
From a small village for hydro builders, Ust-Ilimsk grew into a large municipal center of the Irkutsk region with a population of 82,820 people. And the pride of the residents is the Ust-Ilim Hydroelectric Power Station, whose address is 666683, Irkutsk Region, the city of Ust-Ilimsk, PO Box 958. It is a city of three shock construction projects of the former Soviet Union: the city itself, the hydroelectric power station and the timber industry complex. This is the city of taiga romance of the 60-70s of the last century, about which Alexander Pakhmutova sang in the song, known at one time throughout the country, "Letter to Ust-Ilimsk."
Ust-Ilim HPP in art
In addition to the song, performed by Maya Kristalinskaya (1963), the story of Alexander Vampilov “Ticket to Ust-Ilimsk”, which describes the history of this shock building, brought fame to the city. The 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 hydro-construction brother in Ust-Ilimsk, dedicated the country's children’s population in particular to the life and heroism of taiga builders.
And although modern youth does not know who Maya Kristalinskaya and Alexandra Pakhmutova are, the residents of the city are proud of their dynasties of hydrobuilders and the heroic shock history of their lands. And the Ust-Ilimsk Hydroelectric Power Station, with its grandeur and scale, continues to amaze everyone who first saw this miracle of engineering, will and desire to achieve goals by a man surrounded by the taiga nature of this harsh region.