Enguri HPP Operational

The Enguri hydropower plant (HPP), Georgia’s largest power plant, has gone online after some three months of reconstruction works, the Ministry of Economy reported on April 28. The project’s key component was to repair the dam diversion tunnel, through which the aggregates are supplied with the water from the reservoir.

The reconstruction allows the dam to generate around 90 million kWh of additional electricity per year by cutting water losses by 20-30%, Economy Minister Natia Turnava highlighted.

She dubbed the Enguri HPP a “wealth that unites Georgians and our Abkhaz sisters and brothers.” The HPP’s concrete arch dam is located on the Tbilisi-controlled territory, while its five generators are stationed on the Abkhaz side, in the Gali district.

Russian-occupied Abkhazia, which usually fully relies on electricity generated by the Enguri HPP, canceled the rolling power cuts introduced in the region due to its protracted energy power crisis.

Georgian, Turkish, and German companies carried out the reconstruction works, with the winter-spring period being chosen deliberately due to the low level of the water reservoir in the 271.5-meter-tall concrete arch dam.

The EUR 45 million worth of complex reconstruction was financed through a EUR 7 million grant by the European Commission and a EUR 38 million loan by the EBRD.

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