OREANDA-NEWS. August 27, 2010. In a solemn ceremony, the following officials participated:  Russian Federation Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, Governor of the Amur Region Oleg Kozhemyako, JSC RusHydro's Chairman of the Management Board Evgeny Dod and directors of various energy and infrastructure companies.

During the ceremony, Prime Minister Putin and other government representatives familiarized themselves with the Nizhne-Bureyskaya HPP construction project and examined the exposition dedicated to the project. Afterwards, Prime Minister Putin gave the command to lay the first cubic meter of concrete in the foundation of the Nizhne-Bureyskaya HPP. Subsequently, in accordance with old traditions of the Russian power industry, the General Director of JSC Nizhne-Bureyskaya HPP, Aleksandr Garkin, threw his wristwatch in the fresh concrete.

The Nizhne-Bureyskaya HPP is part of the Project of the Unified Bureya Energy Complex in the Amur Region and will become the counter-regulator of the Bureya HPP, which was commissioned at full capacity in 2009. The project capacity of the Nizhne-Bureyskaya HPP is 320 MW. Commissioning of the first phase (2 hydro units with a capacity of 80 MW each) is scheduled for 2014, the second phase - for 2015, the power plant will reach full project capacity in 2016. The project cost of construction is RUR 31,318 million.

The introduction of capacity at the Nizhne-Bureyskaya HPP was taken into account in the "General scheme for deploying power industry objects till 2020," in the project of "General scheme for deploying power industry objects till 2020 with prospects till 2030," as well as in the project of the Program for developing power industry in the Amur region for the years 2010-2014.