Nurek: Hydropower Giant
The article by Clive Nigel at Eurasianet about Nurek dam is worth of mentioning. There are some beautiful pictures accompanying the article. It is one of the biggest reservoirs of fresh water in Central Asia. Nurek is not only about water but also electricity. I did not know but the author says that it supports nine hydroelectric generating units which produce 98 percent (!) of Tajikistan’s electricity. Of course, I know that it is the biggest power plant which provides half of Tajiksitan with electricity but 98 percent is too much.
Does any one have information on that?
on July 2nd, 2007 at 2:22 am
Uh, Clive, if you stood around a major energy source in the US snapping pictures, you’d be detained in a New York second. Why does Clive seem surprised that they were suspicious of a foreigner taking snap shots of their number source of electricity?
on July 2nd, 2007 at 2:22 am
Uh, Clive, if you stood around a major energy source in the US snapping pictures, you’d be detained in a New York second. Why does Clive seem surprised that they were suspicious of a foreigner taking snap shots of their number one source of electricity?
on July 2nd, 2007 at 3:05 am
“Why does Clive seem surprised that they were suspicious of a foreigner taking snap shots of their number one source of electricity?”
One of these two possible explanations:
1. Double Standards (i.e. do what I say, not what I do)
2. Western folks should be exempt from whatever rules there are in the country because they are “trying to help”.
on July 2nd, 2007 at 2:51 pm
Dear Vadim,
According to the CIA Fact Book, Tajikistan generates 16.5 billion KW hours; according to http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/centralasia/tajik-energy dot htm, it has the capacity to generate a great deal more; according to http://www.transwaterconference2005.org/english/side_norak_eng dot htm, the dam has a capacity of 3000 MW, or 3 million KW. However, I couldn’t find the relationship between kilowatt and kilowatt hour, and I suspect it has to do with efficiency ratios. Also, no matter what the plant can take, if the rest of the system cannot accommodate that output, then you are stuck with a lower number. I don’t know this from electrical engineering, but from previously living in New Orleans (flood zones). Maybe someone can find the efficiency rate of the power plant or is an electrical engineer and can fill us all in. Great article! And I tried. . .
on July 2nd, 2007 at 2:57 pm
Also, about that double standard that Andrew and Tajik Boy mention: oh, of course.
But it occurs to me that probably Clive had never tried to take a picture of a U.S. power plant–because, plants that appear to be doing what they’re supposed to are not as interesting as plants that aren’t.
Also Clive’s subject is much less that of power plants than of Tajikistan.
Also, you can bet that if Clive was sufficiently interested in US power plants to take a picture of one, then he would most likely be outraged to have anyone try to stop him here too.
So there are really two double standards here and one is the cultural-centric one already mentioned, but the other is between security/secrecy vs. journalism/info-gathering.
So, stupid as it all may sound, not all of it is personal. . . I’m guessing, anyway.
Bonnie
on July 2nd, 2007 at 7:45 pm
Kilowatt is a static measure of capacity and represents the ability to produce power. Kilowatt hour is the actual electricity production. If a plant has a capacity of say 100 KW. It may produce 100KW per hour. The generated power (KWh) then is represented by
(a) Plant’s capacity x (b) Number of hours it has been operational
A more conventional way of calculating KWh is:
Kilowatt hours =capacity x 8760 (24 hours x 365) x capacity utilization (1-100%)
So, if Tajikistan produced 16.5 billion KWh then:
16.5 billion/8760/80% (assumed capacity utilization)=2.4 million KW
This means that Tajikistan used 78% of its dam’s capacity. In other words, 78%=2.4/3*98% (where 2.4 is current capacity, 3 is Nurek’s project capacity and 98% is Assumed Nurek’s share of total generated electricity in Tajikistan)
on July 3rd, 2007 at 1:40 pm
Dear Tajik Boy,
Oh, thank you! I am copying all this out in case I need it another time. Like poor Clive, I am learning these things about other states first. . . however, I Do apply them to the U.S. as well.
And thanks again to Vadim for getting us started.
Bonnie
on July 4th, 2007 at 7:59 am
Hello guys. Thank you very much for your valuable comments. I didn’t even expect to have so many comments on this post.
I really glad to have all of you on this blog. Peace to all of you!