GE Renewable Energy announced the booking of a hydropower contract with Barqi Tojik (Tajikistan’s national power utility company) to refurbish six Kaplan units at the state-owned Qairoqqum hydroelectric power plant (HPP) in Tajikistan’s Sughd province.

This 60-year old hydropower plant located on the Syr Darya River is Tajikistan's pilot for making its hydropower plants climate resistant. 

GE Renewable Energy leads the consortium which, with Cobra – a division of ACS Group, a Spanish company - will refurbish the Qairoqqum hydropower plant.

According to pres release issued by GE Renewable Energy, it will upgrade the six turbines and generators, as well as part of the balance of plant and will be in charge of the site supervision for its supplied equipment.  Thanks to the tailored planning proposed by our Consortium, the project will take 54 months vs. the 73 maximum initially envisaged, enabling the plant to be fully modernized by 2023.

The output of each of the six refurbished units will increase from 21 MW to 29 MW, bringing the total capacity of the plant to 174 MW.

In 2010, the Tajik government engaged into a five-year Strategic Program for Climate Resilience (SPCR) which aimed at preparing several sectors of the country's economy - including energy - to face climate changes.

As 98% of Tajikistan's electricity comes from hydropower, it is critical to adapt the existing and new hydropower assets to future operation conditions. Qairoqqum was chosen to pilot how a plant can enhance its performance thanks to rehabilitation and despite challenging as well as changing hydrological conditions.  Thanks to a thorough analysis of meteorological, floods and landslides data, the impact on Qairoqqum of various climate change scenarios were modeled.  Barqi Tojik was then able to assess which refurbishment solutions would be best suited to enable Qairoqqum to produce electricity at its optimal level in the years to come.  Thanks to an improved design of the turbines, the plant will not only be able to address the variations of water flow in the region but produce more energy as well.

GE Renewable Energy is a division of General Electric headquartered in Paris, France focusing on production of energy from renewable sources.  Its portfolio of products includes wind (onshore and offshore), hydroelectric and solar (concentrated and photovoltaic) power generating solutions.  GE Renewable Energy has installed more than 400+ gigawatts of clean renewable energy and equipped more than 90 percent of utilities worldwide with its grid solutions.  With nearly 40,000 employees present in more than 80 countries, GE Renewable Energy creates value for customers seeking to power the world with affordable, reliable and sustainable green electrons.