OREANDA-NEWS. September 09, 2011. A solemn ceremony of commissioning the reconstructed minihydro power plant with a capacity of 4.8 Megawatt took place in the settlement of Laskela of the Republic of Karelia. The pilot project was successfully implemented in the republic by Nord Hydro JSC managing hydrogenerating company at the support of the Government of Karelia.

Turbines of the station have been started up on day of the Conference of regional branches of the United Russia party in the Northwest Federal District with the participation of the Prime Minister Vladimir Putin held in Cherepovets. During the live broadcast the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation has personally given a command to start up the hydroelectric power station. Further, during the conference, the managing director of Nord Hydro Alexey Vinogradov has presented the project of revival of small hydrogeneration in territory of the Northwest and in the Russian Federation.

On the opening day of the minihydro power plant participants of the solemn ceremony including experts of the company, guest representatives of regional authorities, and members of the Government of the republic discussed prospects of implementation of future projects, as well as problems solved during construction of the hydrostation in Laskela. Deputy Minister of Economic Development of Karelia Sergey Alimpiev, in particular, has mentioned: "The importance of Laskela project is obvious: it is a true promotion of 'green' ecological power industry in our territory, and development of the alternative to power monopolists which is of no less importance."

Reconstruction of small hydroelectric power station on the Janis-joki river in the settlement of Laskela is the first project that Nord Hydro JSC implemented for restoration of small hydropower engineering. In Karelia alone it is planned to reconstruct 33 small minihydro power plants that will partially help to solve the problem of energy shortage and supply of electric power to remote regions. Rymakoski minihydro power plant located in Sortavala region on the Tohma-joki river is the project that follows.

Nord Hydro JSC was founded in 2007 in order to implement projects concerning development and restoration of objects of small hydrogeneration in territory of the Russian Federation and in the near abroad.

In 2010-2020 according to the approved plan and investment projects Nord Hydro JSC will be inspecting, designing, reconstructing and building anew 116 hydraulic facilities in 21 regions of the country with total capacity of 252 Megawatt and generating about 1 billion kW/h of electricity a year. The company owns more than 30 objects of minihydro power plants.

Experts of Nord Hydro JSC are members of working groups in various ministries and departments working on perfection of the regulatory framework in the field of development of renewable energy sources in the Russian Federation.