Cheboksary Hydroelectric Station is a hydroelectric power plant on the Volga near Novocheboksarsk in Chuvashia, the fifth stage of the Volga-Kama cascade and a branch of the RusHydro company [1]. For Nizhny Novgorod Region the plant matters above all because of its reservoir: it stretches up the Volga through the Region, and its zone of influence includes three Nizhny Novgorod towns, fourteen rural settlements, and seven agricultural lowlands; Lyskovo and the village of Mikhaylovskoye have been flooded, and the backwater reaches almost to Kstovo [2]. Since 1981 the plant has operated at an intermediate level of 63 meters instead of the designed 68 [1]. Raising the water to the design level would lift the water near Nizhny Novgorod by four meters [2], and Nizhny Novgorod Region has opposed it for decades; in 2015 the Russian government decided to keep the existing level, and in 2018 the raise was again not pursued [3]. The history of this dispute is covered in the articles "Raising the Cheboksary Reservoir Level" and "Myths of the Cheboksary Reservoir."
Construction
The Cheboksary hydroelectric complex was one of the first built into the plan of the "Greater Volga": the decision to construct it was made on January 28, 1931. Yet it was built last in the Volga-Kama cascade [4]. The Gidroenergoproekt institute prepared the preliminary design for construction at the Pikhtulinsky site in the 1950s. In 1960 the design work was transferred to the Kuibyshev branch of the Gidroproekt institute, which moved the site to Elnikovsky, set the upper pool level at 68 meters, and proposed installing 32 horizontal bulb units of 51.2 MW each [1]. The design was approved on January 22, 1967: the plant was to have a capacity of 1,404 MW and generate an average of 3.5 billion kWh per year [1].
In 1968, preparatory work began, and in the same year the construction project was declared an All-Union Shock Komsomol Project; concrete work began in 1973 [1][4]. On the night of November 14–15, 1980, the builders completed the damming of the Volga, a stretch four kilometers long: with the river icing over, about one hundred heavy-duty dump trucks worked around the clock for six days and seventeen hours [4]. A month and a half later, on December 31, 1980, the first hydroelectric unit was started up at an interim elevation of 61 meters, and on January 15, 1981, the station was added to the list of operating enterprises of the Soviet Union [1][4]. The hydroelectric plant building was completed in 1985, and the main structures of the hydroelectric complex by 1986 [1].
| Year | Units commissioned |
|---|---|
| 1980 | 1 |
| 1981 | 2 |
| 1982 | 4 |
| 1983 | 4 |
| 1984 | 4 |
| 1985 | 2 |
| 1986 | 1 |
| Total | 18 |
In the spring of 1981 the reservoir was filled to the 63-meter mark, and the station has operated at that level ever since. For this reason it has not been officially commissioned, and its construction is considered unfinished [1].
Design and modernization
The Cheboksary Hydroelectric Plant is a run-of-river dam station. The hydroelectric complex includes an earth dam and a spillway dam, the powerhouse building, and a two-line, single-chamber navigation lock with embankments and channels; a road runs along the structures. Power is delivered from 220 kV and 500 kV open switchyards [1].
| Hydroelectric units | 18, with Kaplan (variable-pitch) turbines: 17 of 78 MW each and one of 48 MW |
| Design head | 12.4 m |
| Spillway dam | concrete gravity dam, length 149.8 m, height 41.5 m, six spans |
| Discharge capacity of the spillway dam | 5,500 m³/s at normal pool level, 10,400 m³/s during a flood with a 0.1% probability of exceedance |
| Bottom spillways in the powerhouse building | 18, 17,900 m³/s at normal pool level, 25,000 m³/s during a flood with a 0.1% probability of exceedance |
| Average annual output | 2,100 million kWh |
The main modernization project is returning the turbines to the variable-pitch (Kaplan) mode they were designed for: by the beginning of 2018, 12 of the 18 turbines had been returned to the design mode [1]. In September 2024, RusHydro began work on hydroelectric unit No. 18, the final stage of the project. By that time the runner blade rotation mechanisms had been replaced on 16 of the 17 units, 13 generator stators had been renewed, and replacement of hydroelectric unit No. 12 was under way at the same time [5]. The project to renew the hydraulic turbine runners has been under way since 2008, and the commissioning of the modernized eighteenth unit was planned for 2025 [6]. In 2024, one hydroelectric unit was renewed at the plant, with modernization of the hydraulic turbine and replacement of the generator stator [7].
Water Level and Output
At the current water level, the plant is used at no more than 60% of its design capacity and underproduces about 1.4 billion kWh every year [1]. During the spring flood, the headwater level may be raised to 63.7 m: at the peak of the water discharge, the Federal Agency for Water Resources may permit raising it 40 centimeters above the operating level. In spring 2013, the plant's director warned that at a level of 63.75 meters navigation could halt at the hydroelectric complex's lock, and that large idle discharges reduce the head on the units and accelerate equipment wear [8].
Net electricity supplied was 2.13 billion kWh in 2010, 2.09 billion kWh in 2011, and 2.18 billion kWh in the high-water year of 2012 [9].
| Year | Output | Net supply |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 2175 | 2128 |
| 2011 | 2131 | 2087 |
| 2012 | 2235 | 2182 |
The Reservoir and Nizhny Novgorod Region
The reservoir was created by damming the Volga near Novocheboksarsk in 1980 and was filled to the 63-meter mark in 1981. At this level it stretches for 252 kilometers, covers 121,300 hectares, and holds 4.6 cubic kilometers of water; it lies in three constituent entities of Russia, and the lands of fourteen districts fall within its zone of impact. This zone contains six towns and 119 settlements, of which in Nizhny Novgorod Region there are three towns, fourteen rural settlements, and seven agricultural lowlands [2].
The town of Lyskovo, the selo (a larger village) of Mikhaylovskoye, and substantial areas of farmland have been flooded. Nizhny Novgorod, Bor, and Kstovo are considered to lie outside the zone of influence at the 63-meter mark, although the backwater extends almost as far as Kstovo. Engineering protection of the coastal zone has been completed only to about half of the planned scope: many structures were never put into operation and are deteriorating, while most of those in service are in unsatisfactory or emergency condition [2]. In Nizhny Novgorod Region and Mari El, the filling of the reservoir resulted in the flooding and waterlogging of territories, the loss of farmland and forests, the resettlement of residents, and the severing of transport links; water flow decreased, water quality deteriorated, the fishing industry suffered, and landslides intensified [2]. For what further filling would bring to Nizhny Novgorod Region, see the article "Consequences of Raising the Cheboksary Reservoir".
The greatest change came to Makaryevo in Lyskovsky District: part of the settlement fell within the flood zone, its houses were resettled, and shore-protection structures were built in their place, primarily to protect Makaryev Zheltovodsky Monastery from flooding [10].
The task of increasing navigable depths to four meters has not been resolved either: on the Volga between Nizhny Novgorod and Gorodets, below the Nizhny Novgorod Hydroelectric Station, there remains a 54-kilometer stretch of reduced depths. Shallows occupy 31.5% of the reservoir's area instead of the 20.7% specified in the design, which worsens water quality [1]. The four-meter depths on this stretch are being achieved not by raising the reservoir but by reconstructing the Gorodets Locks: a second chamber, Lock No. 15A, is being built in the lower approach channel, and the bottom is being deepened to the design mark of 4.5 meters [11]. By March 25, 2026, the construction readiness of the hydroelectric complex had reached 75% [12]. For how attempts are being made to render this stretch navigable, see the article "Myths of the Cheboksary Reservoir."
The dispute over the 68-meter level
If the level is raised to the design level of 68 meters, the backwater along the Volga will reach the dam of the Nizhny Novgorod Hydroelectric Station. The water will rise by 15 meters at the Cheboksary Hydroelectric Station dam, by four meters at Nizhny Novgorod, and by 0.7 meters at the Nizhny Novgorod Hydroelectric Station, and no river stretch will be left at all in the reservoir area. The backwater will extend 83 kilometers up the Oka, 90 kilometers up the Sura, and 123 kilometers up the Vetluga, and silting will intensify in the backwater zones [2].
The sides assess the consequences differently. In 2011, RusHydro published a map of flooding and waterlogging zones prepared by the Volga Region Energy Engineering Center: according to it, the built-up areas of Nizhny Novgorod, including the Zarechnaya part, as well as Dzerzhinsk, Kstovo, Balakhna, Bor, and Lyskovo, do not fall within the flood zone. The map also showed for the first time a zone of possible waterlogging — a rise in groundwater levels, mainly on the low right bank of the Volga; dams, drainage systems, and bank reinforcement were envisaged for protection, including new protection for the settlement of Makaryevo together with the monastery [13].
In 2015, the Russian government decided to keep the 63-meter mark, but three years later the issue returned. On October 1, 2018, a meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak discussed a report by the Analytical Center under the government: by its estimate, maintaining the current level would cost 238 billion rubles, while raising it would cost 136 billion. Chuvashia called the 68-meter mark its fundamental position, citing the shallows near Cheboksary and Novocheboksarsk. According to the outcome of the meeting, as an informed source told Kommersant, the position of Nizhny Novgorod Region was supported, and Governor Gleb Nikitin also took part in the meeting: raising the level is inexpedient [3].
We oppose any options for completing construction that involve raising the level of the Cheboksary Reservoir, whether to 68 m or to any other mark.
Links
- Dront Eco-Center (archive) (from May 22, 2015, to August 31, 2017, it was listed in the register of NGOs designated as foreign agents) — on the problem of the Cheboksary Hydroelectric Station
- Cheboksary Hydroelectric Station: Yoshkar-Ola residents against raising its level (archive) , mosi.ru
See also
- Gorky Hydroelectric Station
- Consequences of Raising the Cheboksary Reservoir
- Raising the Cheboksary Reservoir Level
- Myths of the Cheboksary Reservoir
- Gorky Reservoir
Sources
- hydropower.ru — Hydropower of Russia Association — Cheboksary Hydroelectric Station: History, Structures, Parameters (archive)
- neftegaz.ru — Cheboksary Reservoir (archive)
- Kommersant (Volga Region) — Nizhny Novgorod — A Flood-Proof Solution: Raising the Water Level at the Cheboksary Hydroelectric Station to 68 m Rejected, October 1, 2018 (archive)
- vestnik-rushydro.ru — RusHydro Bulletin — Cheboksary Hydroelectric Station: Stages of a Shock Construction Project, Nos. 11–12, November–December 2025 (archive)
- neftegaz.ru — RusHydro Completes Comprehensive Modernization of the Cheboksary Hydroelectric Station, September 4, 2024 (archive)
- cheboksary.ru — Hydraulic Turbine Modernization Project Nears Completion at the Cheboksary Hydroelectric Station, September 3, 2024
- vestnik-rushydro.ru — RusHydro Bulletin — Powerful Changes: Results of the Comprehensive Modernization Program for 2024, No. 2, February 2025 (archive)
- sovch.chuvashia.com — Sovetskaya Chuvashia — Vyacheslav Ivanov, Article on the Cheboksary Hydroelectric Station's Preparations for the Spring Flood, April 12, 2013 (archive)
- cheges.rushydro.ru — Branch of RusHydro JSC — "Cheboksary Hydroelectric Station" — Electricity Generation, 2010–2012 (archive)
- cruiseinform.ru — Cruiseinform — Rural Settlement of Makarevo (Nizhny Novgorod Region) (archive)
- rtm.ppp-transport.ru — Federal State Institution "Rostransmodernizatsiya" — Gorodets Hydroelectric Complex. Navigation Locks Nos. 15–16 (archive)
- korabel.ru — Korabel.ru — Construction Readiness of the Gorodets Hydroelectric Complex Reaches 75%, March 25, 2026 (archive)
- bigpowernews.ru — Map of Flooding and Waterlogging Zones of the Cheboksary Reservoir Released, October 27, 2011 (archive)