HPS Cascade

The construction of a Cascade Hydroelectric power station on the Bolshaya Almatinka River was envisaged by the GOELRO plan in 1920. In the pre-war period, the only source of electricity supply to the city of Almaty was the Almaty Central Power Plant.

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the State Defense Committee of the USSR decided to build a cascade of hydroelectric power plants on the Bolshaya Almatinka River to provide electricity to

factories and enterprises evacuated from the European part of the USSR.

Design and preparatory work began in 1942 by the Leningrad branch of the Gidroproekt Institute, and from April 1943 the construction of the first power plants directly began. The construction was carried out in the traditional way, more than 6 thousand citizens, military personnel, prisoners of war, prisoners of war took part in it. The work was poorly mechanized, and almost all labor-intensive work was done manually. Painstaking work in particularly difficult conditions made it possible to put into operation in April 1944 the first – born of the future cascade-HPP-11, which was published in the newspaper Kazakhstanskaya Pravda on May 1, 1944. On September 5 and 17 of the same year, the city received electric power from HPP-5 and HPP-9, respectively. In the same year, construction of HPP 6 and HPP 7 began, which was completed in 1946. In March 1948, the 8th hydroelectric power station was put into operation.

In August 1943, the Kazakh Regional Energy Department “Kazakhenergo” became part of the newly created directorate of the Cascade Hydroelectric Power Station-go. Thus, the actual date of creation of the Cascade Almaty HPP enterprise can be considered the date of creation of Kazakhenergo, then AEU Almatyenergo, NPP Almatyenergo, CJSC APK, i.e. -1943. However, the official date of creation of the Cascade HPP as an enterprise within Kazakhenergo was adopted on August 9, 1948.

The creation of the first stage of the cascade of power plants has practically eliminated the shortage of electricity in the power system. Also, work continues on the use of water resources of the Bolshaya Almatinka River. In October 1953, the Ozernaya HPP-1 was put into operation with three Italian installations of the Ansaldo San Giorgio company, which are still in operation today. It should be noted that HPP-1 is a high-pressure hydroelectric power station in the entire area of the former USSR (N=532 m).

After HPP-2 was put into operation in July 1959, the construction of hydroelectric power stations using the energy potential of the Big Almaty Gorge was completed.

Electricity production by power plants of the Kaskad HPP in the period from 1950 to 1960 accounted for 50-60% of the total balance of the Almaty energy system. Currently, the share of electricity generated annually in the total volume of the energy complex of JSC “AlES” does not exceed 5-6%.

Nevertheless, the Cascade HPP, in addition to producing cheap electricity, plays an important role not only in providing clean water to the southern part of Almaty, but also in self-rotating power plants. in the most serious system accidents involving the destruction of the power system, loss of inter-system connections, and complete compensation of sources, nearby thermal power plants provide electricity for their own needs. The possibility of such a situation is confirmed by life, by the real events of the systemic catastrophe of 1986.

The HPP cascade started operating on February 15, 2007, after the agribusiness JSC was reformed. It is a part of JSC “Almaty Electric Power Stations”.

Address: Almaty, Nurly Tau microdistrict, Gulnafis Bayazitova str., 21

Phone number: (+7 – 727) 2 75 92 49

Fax number: (+7 – 727) 2 75 92 01