An explanation of the Sayno-Shushenskay catastrophe
Valery Okulov
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Center for Fluid Dynamics
DTU
Abstract:
The Sayano-Shusehnskaya Hydro Power Plant accident is the first huge technogenic catastrophe of XXI century. At 8:15 local time (0015 GMT) on 17 August 2009, water flooded the turbine room at the Sayano- Shushenskaya station in eastern Siberia region of Khakassia, 3,000 km (1,875 miles) east of Moscow. At least 73 confirmed dead after an accident shut down the Russia's largest hydro-electric power station. Three units were destroyed and another three damaged in the incident. Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko described the accident as “the biggest and most mysterious in global hydroenergy” and said it would cost 40 billion rubles ($1.2 billion) to rebuild the power plant’s engine room.
The Sayano–Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station is located on the Yenisei River, near Sayanogorsk in Khakassia, Russia. It is the largest power plant in Russia, providing 10 per cent of Siberia’s energy needs, and the fifth-largest hydroelectric plant in the world, by average power generation. The dam above it is 245m (800ft) high and stretches 1km (0.6 miles) across the Yenisei river. The plant operates 10 hydro turbines manufactured at the Leningradsky Metallichesky Zavod, each with a capacity of 640 MW at 194-metre (640 ft) head. The total installed capacity of the plant is 6,400 MW; its average annual production is 23.5 TWh, which peaked in 2006 at 26.8 TWh. My communication presents an engineering data of the station and turbines; description of the catastrophe based on Russian source of information; and an explanation of the accident.