Overview
The project has involved rehabilitation of 46 hydro units which are located at nine different sites on the Dnipro river and one site on the Dnister river. This has entailed the replacement of hydraulic power, electrotechnical and hydro-mechanical equipment such as gates, turbines, generators, excitation and governor systems, control, protection and automation systems, switchyard equipment and auxiliary equipment.
Some of the oldest hydro units that were rehabilitated under the project were commissioned 80 years ago and although they will not be obsolete for many years to come, they continue to run at increasingly lower efficiency levels. Hydropower generation in the Ukraine is limited by reservoir level. It is desirable to have turbines running at high efficiency to produce the maximum amount of power from the available water resources.
The project has increased the electricity generation capacity and efficiency of the rehabilitated hydropower plants. Additional power generated by the hydro units during peak periods has displaced that generated by thermal plants. It is estimated that emission reductions due to displaced thermal electricity generation was 1.09 million tCO2e during the years 2008 - 2012.
The project was implemented in stages and as more hydro units were rehabilitated, the project’s hydropower plants has generated an increased amount of electricity. By the year 2012 it was expected that increased generation would be approximately 338GWh/a and peak by 2015 at 470 GWh/a.
Benefits
The project has brought a number of benefits to the local community and Ukraine as a whole. It has helped increase the reliability of power supply by enhancing the ability of the rehabilitated hydropower plants to provide critical electricity supply during peak times and frequency control. It has also included additional technical assistance to improve reservoir management and plant operation. Additionally, as part of the project, a dam safety monitoring system has been installed along with other related components.
In terms of environmental benefits, the project has helped reduce air pollution caused by the emission of SO2, NOX and CO2 by outdated thermal plants. Water pollution has also been reduced at some of the reservoirs through the installation of environmentally safe runners to the hydro units, which eliminate oil leakage.