Russian Megafactories: The largest dam in Russia’s Far East

The Bureya Dam is the largest in Russia’s Far East and one of the 10 most powerful dams in all of Russia. The Bureya Dam is owned by RusHydro.

The Bureya Dam is located on the Bureya River in the Amur region. The dam has a capacity of 2,010 megawatts, while its average annual energy output is 7.1 billion kilowatts per hour.

The dam’s first cement was laid in 1985. However, starting in 1989, financing for construction was cut significantly which brought work to a standstill and severe social consequences. The station’s first hydroelectric unit was put into place in 2003, it’s last in 2007.

The dam is 140 meters tall and is the tallest dam of its type in Russia. This is comparable in height to a 50-story building. Approximately 4 million cubic meters of cement were placed in it. The dam weighs approximately 15 million tons.

The dam forms the Bureyskoye Reservoir, which is 750 square kilometres in area and located in two federal territories: the Amur region and the Khabarovsk Krai. It took 6 years for the reservoir to fill completely.

The turbine hall is 150 meters long.

The Bureya Dam’s shell uses 500 kW polyethylene power cables made by ABB Energiekabel. These cables are being used for the first time in Russia and only the second time worldwide.

The hydro turbines revolve at 125 RPM.

Once the Bureya Dam came online, the Far East region started to receive a large quantity of cheap energy.

The Bureya Dam has significantly reduced use of imported fuel in the region, a reduction to the tune of 5.2 million tons per year, which makes it possible to save 4.7 billion rubles a year.