For both the Karakurt and Alpaslan 2 power plants, this is the launch of the first units, the first Francis turbines. “We managed to meet all the conditions for obtaining a guaranteed dollar tariff which will apply for the first ten years of the power plant operation,” adds Pavel Váňa, Executive Director of the Energo-Pro Group.
This is the largest Czech investment in hydropower industry since November 1989.
The new dam with the Karakurt hydropower plant is located in the Aras river basin. 3 Francis turbines with a total installed capacity of 99.5 MW will be installed in the power plant. The first is already installed, while the other two units will be launched in November and December. The water area of the dam will cover an area of 14 km2 and the earth fill dam with asphalt core will reach a height of 137 meters. For the construction of the dam, Energo-Pro needed 6.4 million cubic meters of excavated rock. Just for an idea, this is 360,000 loaded trucks. A total of 30,500 cubic meters of the asphalt mixture were then used for the asphalt core.
An even larger and more impressive new dam with the Alpaslan 2 hydropower plant is located on the Murat River. 4 Francis turbines with a total installed capacity of 280 MW will be installed in the power plant. The first unit is installed, and the remaining three will be launched in December and February. The water area of the dam will cover 55 km2. Energo-Pro began construction of the dam in September 2018 and completed it within two years. The volume of the dam body is 9.05 million cubic meters. The construction work ran 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with up to 1,900 workers taking part in the construction.
For both dams, ENERGO-PRO built an earth fill dam with an asphalt core. “ It proved to be the most suitable for the local seismological conditions, and it was also the fastest variant to execute”, adds Pavel Váňa. Both earth fill dams are completely unique in their parameters. Just for comparison, the Czech Republic now has the highest functional earth fill dam in Europe. It is located on the Dalešice water reservoir, which is exactly 100 meters high.
The connection of the power plants to the grid this year was a condition for obtaining a discounted guaranteed purchase price of electricity from January 2021. The warranty consists of two parts; in the first ten years of the power plant’s operation it will be $73 per megawatt-hour. In addition, this tariff will be increased in the first five years, as the Turkish government has set clear conditions for turbines or generators built in Turkey. As a result, Energo-Pro will sell electricity at $86 per megawatt-hour at Alpaslan 2 and $96 per megawatt-hour at Karakurt. “If we take into account the estimated electricity production, in this case we could earn about $ 520 million in the first five years. Alpaslan 2 should produce 850 GWh and Karakurt 340 GWh per year. Of course, the advantage is also that we will have a fixed dollar tariff for 10 years; this provides investors in renewable sources with greater security and coverage of currency risk, and it also allows them to finance these long-term infrastructure green energy projects,” confirms Pavel Váňa.
The total amount of investment in two new hydropower plants with dams exceeds USD 800 mil.
Hydropower plants are currently the world's most important low-emission and renewable source. They supply almost 17% of the world's electricity and about 70% of renewable electricity. Energo-Pro is the largest Czech company investing in hydropower for more than 25 years. After connecting the two new Turkish power plants, the company will be operating a total of 38 hydropower plants in 4 countries around the world.
