Increase of the efficiency of operating the cascade of Vakhsh hydroelectric stations by using part of the runoff of the Pyandzh River

Conclusions

• 1. In connection with the historically established economic conditions and existing agreements with neighboring countries, the cascade of Vakhsh hydrostation was designed on the basis of operating conditions in an irrigation regime and cannot provide Tajikistan's own need for power in the winter, the deficit of which is 4 billion kWh/yr. The traditional methods of solving this problem call for the construction of either an irrigation reregulator in the lower course of the river or a hydrostation operating in a power compensator regime in its upper course. Both these variants require vast expenditures of material and financial resources and provide an effect just due to one particular hydro development.

• 2. The natural conditions of Tajikistan created the unique possibility of increasing the effectiveness of the combined operation of the Vakhsh cascade by constructing a tunnel conduit and using the runoff of the Pyandzh River in operating the Vakhsh hydrostations. With minimum construction costs the power effect of the cascade in this case increases substantially since it is achieved due to the repeated use of Pyandzh River water at all stations of the cascade and without any detriment for irrigation.

• 3. Realization of the proposed project will increase the total power production of the cascade for all hydrostations specified by the scheme depending on the degree of streamflow regulation by the Pyandzh reservoir. The cost effectiveness of the proposed project is an order higher than that of the traditional variants. Even for the stations operating today on the cascade its effect is comparable to the effect of the Nurek hydrostation with respect to all indices. Here the total cost of the tunnel conduit together with the dam is an order lower than the cost of the Nurek hydro development.