DUSHANBE, April 8, 2011, Asia-Plus -- Open joint-stock company (OJSC) Turboatom in the Ukrainian city of Kharkov has tested rotor manufactured for the Norak hydroelectric power plant (HPP) and sent it for shipping to Tajikistan.

Luydmila Sheinina, a spokeswoman for Turboatom, told Asia-Plus today that the rotor test was conducted on April 4 and the test showed that the rotor meets all standards.  “A 53-ton rotor was packed and transported by a special vehicle to the city of Gostomel, Kiev region and from there it will be transported to Tajikistan by plane,” Sheinina said, noting that six other rotors, guide vane, shaft for hydraulic turbine and servomotors (actuating motors) will be manufactured for the Norak HPP in the future.

We will recall that the Ukrainian company has produced rotors for Units 3 and 8 at the Norak HPP and they have already been delivered to Tajikistan and installed at the station.

Turboatom specializes in the production of turbines for thermoelectric and nuclear power stations, hydraulic turbines for hydroelectric power stations and hydro-accumulator stations, gas turbines for thermoelectric power stations, and steam-and-gas equipment as well as other energy equipment.  A 75.22% stake in the enterprise belongs to the state and is managed by the State Property Fund.

The Norak Dam is an earth fill embankment dam on the Vakhsh River.  At 300 meters it is currently the tallest dam in the world.  Construction of the dam began in 1961 and was completed in 1979, when Tajikistan was still a republic within the Soviet Union.  The Norak Dam is uniquely constructed, with a central core of cement forming an impermeable barrier within a 300 meter-high rock and earth fill construction. The volume of the mound is 54 million m³. The dam includes nine hydroelectric generating units, the first commissioned in 1972 and the last in 1979.

A total of nine hydroelectric turbines are installed in the Norak Dam.  Originally having a generating capacity of 300 megawatts each (2,700 megawatts total), they have since been redesigned and retrofitted such that they now combine to produce 3,000 megawatts.  Units 1,2,3,4,6,7,8, and 9 now have capacity of 335 megawatts each and Unit 5 now has capacity of 320 megawatts.