Tereblya-Riks'ka Hydro Power plant. Part one.

Some bald facts to start off with. Tereblya-Riks'ka Hydro-Powerplant, is located in the village of Protyven of the Khust region was built in 1955 and was launched on the 25th of May of 1956. The water supplying the station is taken from the Vilshanske water basin located nearby. This massive water storage basin blocks off the Tereblya river in the nearby valley behind the mountain. The height of the dam is 45.8 meters, and the length is 153 meters. The volume of the basin constitutes 23,6 million of cubic meters of water although as a result of repeated mud accumulation, the useful volume has decreased to about 17 million cubic meters.

The 3.7 km channel is built in the valley behind the mountain between the basin and the power plant and heads right through the mountain. This creates a height difference of 200 m allowing the water to enter the turbines at 18 cubic meters a second. The channel represents a concrete tunnel drilled under a small angle. The 350 m steel pipe (2.5 m in diameter with walls 2.5 cm thick) at the end of it was manufactured in Finland and follows the slope of the mountain under a 37 degree angle. Before entering the pipe, the water first encounters a sophisticated shutter system. It is then accelerated through the pipe and enters the three turbines in the main hall. The turbines were manufactured at «UralElectroApparat» plant (Sverdlovsk, U.S.S.R.), the systems of oil supply are the products of Finland, and the system of the spin speed control was manufactured in Sweden. The turbines spin at 600 rpm (rotations per minute) and each of them is capable of the 9 megawatts per hour output when maximally loaded.

Just to give you some points of reference, the Uzhgorod hydro power plant is operating on Czech equipment made back in 1941 at the average speed of 200-400 rpm and outputs 1.9 Megawatt per hour at the drop height of 9 meters. A similar power plant in the village of Onokovtsi is producing 2.65 megawatt per hour at the drop height of 7.5 meters. Neither power plant has a dedicated water storage basin of its own and takes advantage of the height differences in the channel Kamyanitsa-Uzhgorod.

During times of the U.S.R.R. the power plant was guarded as the strategically important object of and the access would be granted only to those having a special permission to the secret information. No photographing was allowed and the cameras would be taken by the security personnel.

A historical upshot follows. The idea of building the Tereblya-Riks'ka hydro-power plant the way it is now was contemplated by the Hungarian and Czech hydro engineers well before the World War 2.

Frequent landslides severely impeded construction of the dam near the village of Vil'shany. In an effort to prevent this, the slopes would be strengthened with the concrete blocks. All and all 200, 000 cubic meters were used for this.

The tunnel was drilled from either end of the mountain and when the two crews finally met up, it was discovered the centre of each tunnel was off only by 2 cm.

At one point during the drilling, one of the walls got busted and the construction crew was faced with a powerful stream of water. It was decided to block off the undesired opening but the struggle with the torrent continued for another 10 days before the hole would be securely clogged off.

The winter of 1957 presented a tough challenge for the young hydro power plant. The mountains were covered with 1.5 meters of snow when unexpectedly heavy rains hit the Carpathians. This followed by a five-point earthquake near the village of Nizhniy Bystriy. Consequently, the tunnel started to leak some water, which threatened to undermine the strength of the mountain significantly increasing the likelihood of the landslide. Luckily, nothing had happened as the safety margins were carefully calculated during the planning stages.

Sometimes I hear speculative statements concerning the hypothetical independence of Transcarpathia. Now, the question is if our region were to exist as a separate state whether we’d be able to become self-sufficient at least in terms of the hydro supplies. I can tell you right away, the answer is a definite 'NO'. At the times of the collapse of the U.S.S.R., our region required about 260 Megawatt per hour. Considering the energy needs haven't sustained significant changes since, the Tereblya-Riks'ka power plant is currently providing enough to satisfy only about 10% of the required demand. Now, if we take into consideration the Uzhgorod and Onokovtsi power plants, the output is about 4.7 megawatt hours. That's about it, really.

As far as building additional hydro power plants goes, back in 1940s the Czechs came up with a plan to build around 44 smaller hydro power plants with a total output of 185 megawatt. Unfortunately, these plans were never implemented at the time. Currently, their realization will require enormous monetary spending.

Now, some pictures with my short comments



This is the view of the turbine hall of the Tereblya-Riks'ka hydro propellant. Behind the tree windows inside the building one can find three turbines. Three smaller windows at the water level represent the exit gates for the water.



The Rika river is seen to carry its dirty streams. The water entering from the basin is more or less transparent, although over the next 1.5 km, after leaving the turbine hall, it’ll be mixed with the dirty water, forming clear borders of the streams seen on the picture...



On this photograph, you can clearly see the upper segment of the tunnel. This 350 meter pipe gives rise to 200 m drop height.



The main building of the power plant from up close.



This is what the basin looked like near the «Menchul» hostel. The picture was taken in 2006.



This is the view of the dam itself near the Vilshany village. This picture was also taken back in 2006 during the trip to the Sinevir lake.



The older stairwell with handrails made out of stone indicates that the time appears to have stopped at the entrance to the area surrounding the hydro power plant, which is now called Preteen'.



...a pioneer girl is wearing a tie and holding on to a school book...



...the young pioneer-Horner...



I should say it wasn't all that easy to get on site. The security guard had to make a few calls while I was trying to convince him to let me in using an arsenal of persuasive means. Finally, we got a permission to enter, and accompanied by a worker of the power plant proceeded inside. Right at the entrance, we were greeted by a boat like this...



The «turbine hall» is found in this building decorated with the transformers.



Taking a better look at the steel pipe. Just a reminder: it's 350 meter long, 2.2 meters wide, the width of the steel is 2.5 cm., made in Finland.



This piece of art can be found right besides the entrance to the turbine hall. Quite pretty and very simple at the same time. A blow up of the picture can be found here. Next to the painting, one can examine the stands with the older photos detailing the stages of the construction process.



The turbine hall and one of the three turbines right at the front. The staircase on the right is heading up to the control system of the power plant. Here one can find lots of toggle switches, lamps, and alls sorts of pretty cool measuring devices.



This shot better demonstrates the heart of the power plant. I'm tempted to name it «the three muskateers».



The special rails are enabling this powerful crane to move along the whole area of the turbine hall.



And this is the system of the oil supply also made in Finland. It's providing the oil for the bearings of the turbines at the whopping pressure of 20 atmospheres. In spite of its age, it's working like a clock.



And this device here was made in Sweden and operates a bit like a car transmission, regulating the rotational velocity of the turbines.

Continuation: Tereblya-Riks'ka Hydro Power plant. Part two.

05.01.2011. 09:17

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