Everyone from school has a rough idea of how a hydroelectric power station works. The dam blocks the river, creates a difference between the lower and upper pools, water falls under pressure, rotates the turbines, kinetic energy turns into mechanical energy, which is converted into electrical energy by the generator. Everything seems clear, simple. What is this scheme in real life? At the Ust-Kamenogorsk hydroelectric power station, a correspondent of «Kazakhstanaya Pravda» was allowed to see with his own eyes how «they make light» – they produce electricity, the main resource of the economy.

Hydroelectric power station – feature of Ust-Kamenogorsk. And here are just some milestones in her story. Ust-Kamenogorsk hydroelectric power station – first-born in the famous Irtysh kas-kad. The main construction here proceeded at an accelerated pace from 1949 to 1952. Four hydraulic units were gradually put into operation in 1952, 1953, 1959. Dam height – 40 meters, installed capacity – 367.8 MW, available – 335 MW, average annual output – 1,580 million kilowatt-hours.

Training, safety…

People specially go to the GES village of Ablaketka to get spectacular views of the dam on the Irtysh. However, the hydroelectric power station itself is a strategic facility; outsiders are not allowed to enter here. They let me through only because the visit was in advance
agreed. I receive an electronic pass, go through «frame»…

–Keep it with you, – the guard strictly provides, giving you a pass to the checkpoint. – There are emergency training sessions here. Hear the siren – apply the pass to the device. The duty officer will see where the guest is. Otherwise, they will start looking for you.

I put on a helmet, but I can’t live without it on an industrial site. The station management is holding a scheduled safety meeting today. The figure shared by Tlek Aidabulov, General Director of Ust-Kamenogorsk HPP LLP «and Shulbinskaya HPP LLP » NPP«, is stunning: every year on the planet, losses from industrial accidents amount to 4% of global GDP »this is approximately 6.4 trillion dollars!

In our republic, on average, 1,600 people suffer at work every year. At a hydroelectric power station, for example, the risks are associated with working at altitude, as well as with equipment that is energized. At the end of 2024, the company reached 10 thousand hours without accidents and is determined to move on without an emergency.

The main building with the turbine room is several hundred meters away. The first thing that catches your eye is the complete absence of people on the territory. Experts like to compare the station with a living organism, and so that it does not «sneeze» or «cough», all the staff is busy with work. Nobody has time to walk around just like that. For example, the duty shift on the main control panel lasts 12 hours. The door to this brain center – is electronically locked, each entrance or exit is fixed. As the station engineer on duty Dmitry Baranov explains, if a person does not have access to the premises, he will not get there.

The remote control is amazing in complexity. On the monitors – dozens of parameters, on the shield – control keys, automatic machines, alarm boards…

– Everything is computerized, – confirms the electrician of the main control panel Rauan Tursynkhan. – Each machine is equipped with sensors, we see the processes taking place. If there are deviations, the alarm goes off and action is taken.

Ust-Kamenogorsk power engineers, by the way, learned lessons from the 2009 disaster at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station. Each of the four units at the station today is equipped with sensors for temperature, vibration, gaps and a number of other important parameters. If sensitive equipment detects an excess, the alarm – first warning, then the emergency alarm may turn on.

For Siberians, the accident was aggravated by the lack of a backup independent power supply system. At the hydroelectric power station in Ust-Kamenogorsk, as a reserve, there is a diesel generator installed at an unflooded level. It can urgently power taps, with the help of which, if necessary, the spillway dam panels are opened.

–If necessary, each hydraulic unit can be quickly taken out for repairs, but this does not happen here,” says Dmitry Baranov. – The main equipment undergoes routine repairs every six months, usually in spring and autumn. And once every seven to eight years it is modernized.

The station engineer on duty and his partner, the electrician of the main control panel, Rauan Tursynkhan, explain clearly, quickly. They don’t have extra time. Today – launch of the third unit, which was just under current repair.

In theory, the station will be able to immediately increase power, but, as Rauan explains with a smile, «today he turned on one hydraulic unit, tomorrow – all four» – this is not how it works at a huge hydropower enterprise. The hydroelectric power station has a schedule from the Irtysh Basin Inspectorate for regulating the use and protection of water resources. Only the inspection has the right to determine the flow of Irtysh water permitted for generation, and for every day. And only on this depends how many hydraulic turbines will be involved.

–During the day we can change generation, – says the electrician, – but at the end of the day we must reach the permitted consumption.

In the next office – working month of the duty officer… across the country. It’s a joke, of course, but in principle not so far from the truth. Leading regime engineer Daniyar Zhaisanbaev controls the situation in the balancing electricity market.

The fact is that since July 2023, all energy-producing entities are required by law to sell electricity to a single buyer. Each station plans and declares both its production and consumption. Deviations are unacceptable.

–What if, – I ask, – the hydroelectric power station decides to produce more in order to sell more and, accordingly, earn extra money?

Daniyar shakes his head negatively: it’s impossible. This will be considered a violation of the water and energy balance and will entail penalties.

– The Irtysh Basin Water Inspectorate gives a range of per day, – explains the engineer. – The station, helping the system operator KEGOC, generates more during rush hour and relieves congestion on the system during minimum hours. The main thing is – to remain within the specified intervals for production, as well as for water consumption. This is important because in the event of increased discharge, flooding downstream can be caused. Everything is calculated. My task is constant monitoring. The Ust-Kamenogorsk hydroelectric power station is a counter-regulator of the Bukhtarma hydroelectric power station in the Irtysh cascade of hydroelectric power stations. If the Bukhtarma station has a multi-year regulatory regime, then we have – daily.

Living history

«Heart» of the station – turbine room. The spectacle is epic. Before our eyes there is only the upper part of the hydraulic units with turbine covers, – four cars one after another. Four colossuses! The height of the hydraulic unit – is more than 17 m, one impeller weighs 86 tons, one bolt from the turbine cover – 80 kilos! Mechanics have mega-keys weighing 15 kg or more ready for such parts.

Electrician of the main control panel Ernar Tokpaev says: out of four machines, two are currently in operation. At the same time, the hum in the hall is such that you have to scream to hear each other. This song of turbines is written by «voices of» water, shaft, impeller, bearings, rotor, stator…

Turbine generators are located at a lower level, impellers – even lower. Mine slopes lead to them, and the staff says: «Went into the mine». I follow Ernar down to a small observation deck. All the laws of hydropower, as they say, are evident in all their glory. Water enters from a 40-meter height into a spiral chamber, is broken by guide vanes into 24 streams, and rotates a huge impeller with a diameter of six meters at a speed of 83 revolutions per minute! In another room, where the rotor and stator are monitored, the turbine operates with such power that a strong wind blows. The specialist even warns: you cannot have things with you that can blow away.

A hydraulic installation is located separately, regulating the water flow to the impeller. Yernar respectfully strokes the device with his palm: it contains approximately 400 mm of turbine oil plus compressed air. Due to the powerful pressure in the pipes, the water flow entering the guide vanes can be opened and closed.

–The entire power generation cycle is controlled from a remote control, – says the specialist. – The processes of opening, closing, reducing or increasing output are fully automated. At the same time, we have the equipment to manually control the units. It’s like a reserve.

Of the four hydraulic units installed at hydroelectric power stations in the 1950s, only one «fourth » machine has preserved its historical – filling–. Starting in 2020, the three devices underwent a complete upgrade, including replacement of the impeller, guide vanes, turbine blades, etc. The power of each increased from 83.3 megawatts to 95.

At the same time, according to Ernard, production begins at a power of at least 55–60 megawatts. If the water inspectorate has given «the go-ahead» for water consumption sufficient for two units, the station will not operate on three.

Now the next step is to update the last – fourth – hydraulic unit. He’s been at work for 67 years! The project is planned for 2026–2027, and the executive power of Ust-Kamenogorsk has already supported the idea of a monument to East Kazakhstan hydropower in the form of a historical impeller from 1959. A large park complex in the city can get an incredible local history «trick».

– The modernization that the station is currently carrying out is also history, – the specialist emphasizes. –In fact, today a reserve of reliability is being created for the next 40–50–60 years.

By the way, for more than 70 years the appearance of the turbine room has remained virtually unchanged. Technical equipment – equipment, cables – this has all been updated and continues to be updated. But they decided not to touch the famous architectural style of the 1950s at the hydroelectric power station. Physics is physics, but «lyrics» are also valued at hydroelectric power stations.

Hydrostation public relations specialist Svetlana Nishchenko shows the surviving amazing ball lamps and stucco molding in the Stalinist Empire style. On one unit there is a sign from the manufacturer «Leningrad Plant of the Order of Lenin, named after Stalin».

Svetlana leads me either to boxing or to a capsule made of thick metal. What is this – a safe, a box for valuable equipment? It turns out that this is an individual bomb shelter.

–You could say this is a fragment of the Cold War period, – says the specialist. – Such individual bomb shelters stood near each hydraulic unit. It was assumed that in the event of a bombing, the drivers should hide in them. There were several such buildings in the hall, we left one for history…

Under control

Ust-Kamenogorsk hydropower engineers to this day maintain a close connection with the manufacturer of the main equipment – the former Leningrad Metal Plant (LMZ), today the company «Power Machines». It was St. Petersburg machine builders who manufactured new impellers with improved characteristics for hydroelectric power plants.

Now contractors from St. Petersburg are helping to implement automation to control flows on high-voltage lines. Leading engineer of the electrical laboratory of the management company of the hydroelectric power station Anton ­Vasiliev shows complex modules on the monitor and explains: automation is being introduced with an algorithm for unloading the generator up to complete shutdown if the power exceeds a given range. This is done in order to improve the reliability of power supply, plus the station will be able to apply for an increase in power output.

–Now we are setting up an automated process control system, that is, computers, sensors, – says the specialist. – Next «let’s tie» relay protection and open switchgears – line switches, bus systems into the system. If previously the adjustment was done manually, now the operator will sit in the chair and observe. And the automation – execute.

The condition of the hydroelectric power station is already monitored by approximately 500 different sensors. Buildings and structures maintenance engineer Gleb Shalaev agrees to show the devices that monitor «the health of» the dam. They are installed in the local «Hogwarts secret room» – potern.

This underground gallery is actually laid along the bottom of the Irtysh from one bank to the other. You walk through a concrete tunnel and scroll through your head: 65 m of dam, behind it the Ust-Kamenogorsk reservoir, overhead – pressure pipelines through which water enters the units, on the edge – chute for draining filtered water…

Gleb shows marks on the concrete wall: here the expansion joints are indicated with letters and numbers. «The seams – are normal, – he assures. – They allow the structure «to walk», relieve tension and drain water».

All equipment is covered by an automated control system. There are sensors that record changes in cracks and temperature joints by hundredths of a millimeter. There are inclinometers that measure the slightest deviation of the dam relative to the vertical, one or two degrees. There are piezometers that determine the water level at the base of the foundation. There are sensors for stress arising in the body of concrete…

–The automation allows you to see the main parameters without leaving your office, – says the engineer. – The monitor displays data on how the seams open, what water consumption is, what temperature. But specialists, as before, continue to take measurements manually, with a caliper and stopwatch, according to the principle «trust, but check».

Additional monitoring is carried out after earthquakes. So far there has not been a single case where deviations were noted in any safety parameters at a hydraulic structure.

…We are returning from the postern to the territory, and I can’t resist asking all journalists’ favorite question: how safe is the 70-year-old dam? Gleb smiles. Somehow experts calculated the approximate weight of the station. The total length of the Ust-Kamenogorsk hydroelectric complex is 461 m: left bank blind dam, shield wall, right bank dam, spillway dam, shipping lock, turbine hall building. Control keys, automatic machines, alarm boards…

–It turned out that the weight of the structure is approximately 1.7 million tons, – says the engineer. – It is difficult to imagine a force that would be able to destroy all this…

Galina Vologodskaya («Kazakhstanskaya Pravda»)