OREANDA-NEWS. On October 20, the last - sixth hydropower unit has been brought on line at the Bureyskaya HPP, the RAO UES press-service announced. The official launch ceremony was attended by the RAO UES Management Board Chairman Anatoly Chubais, members of the Federation Council Valentin Mezhevich and Alexander Torshin, and OAO "HydroWGC" Management Board Chairman Vyacheslav Sinyugin.

After the launch of the sixth 335 MW power unit, the Bureyskaya HPP has become the largest hydropower plant in Russia's Far East with an installed capacity of 3,600 MW. Since its launch in 2003, the Bureyskaya HPP has produced over 8.5 billion kWh of cost-effective electricity, which saved over 8 million tonnes of fuel equivalent (coal and fuel oil) for thermal power plants and helped curb the electricity rates growth in the Far East of Russia, driven by inflation and fuel price growth.

The project to build the Bureyskaya HPP was started back in the early 1980s, but was suspended in the 1990s due to insufficient funding. In 2000, Anatoly Chubais, Chairman of the Management Board of RAO "UES of Russia", issued an order to include the Bureyskaya HPP project in the RAO UES investment programme as one of the top priority projects. In 2006, the project management was transferred from RAO "UES of Russia" to OAO "HydroOGK". Investments in the construction of the Bureyskaya HPP over the period totalled in excess of RUB10 billion (without taking into account the reservoir bed development project which was financed by the federal authorities).

In 2008, the dam is expected to be raised to the designed elevation, and the two temporary runners installed at the first two hydraulic units will be replaced with permanent ones. As a result, their combined capacity will increase by 300 MW. After its projected capacity reaches 2,000 MW, the plant will generate an average of 7.1 billion MW annually, or one fifth of all electricity generated in the Far East of Russia. In the future, OAO "HydroOGK" plans to accelerate the construction of the Nizhnebureyskaya HPP (installed capacity of 321 MW) which will become a reregulating facility for the Bureyskaya HPP. The feasibility study for the project will be ready in Q2 2008.

The cost-effective hydraulic potential of Russia's Far East is over 300 billion kWh of annual generation, but its utilization rate is less than 4%. The investors, primarily large producers, are increasingly interested in the Far East of Russia, which means that the electricity demand in the region will grow substantially.

The construction of the Bureyskaya HPP resumed in 2000 gave a strong impetus to the social and economic development in the Amurskaya Region. More than RUB2 billion in taxes were collected by the regional and local authorities in the course of the plant construction. Simultaneously with the construction of the Bureyskaya HPP, financing was provided for the construction of more than 125,000 square meters of housing, schools, kindergartens, health care institutions, and other social infrastructure facilities, tens of thousands kilometres of asphalt paved roads, and other infrastructure facilities. The comfort of living has significantly improved in the residential centers located near the plant construction site. The region's producers received over RUB600 million in orders related to the project. The cheap electricity generated by the plant will help accelerate the development of the region's industry.