Dzoraget Hydroelectric Power Station

Dzoraget HPP
Dzoraget HPP
	Dzoraget River
Power Station
Turbines	3
Installed capacity	26.2 MW

The Dzoraget Hydroelectric Power Station (

run-of-the-river

plant.

History

Construction of the power plant started in 1927. It took five years to build, until 1932. The power plant is created by the academician, engineer and a pioneer of the hydroelectric station construction in the Soviet Union Genrikh Graftio and the Armenian engineer and academician Hovhaness Nerses Meliq-Pashaev. The power plant construction was planned and organized by Iosif Andreh Ter-Astvacatryan.^[2] In 1931, Russian writer Marietta Shaginyan published her novel Hydrocentral (Gidrotsentral) about her observations of the plant's construction between 1926 and 1928.

The first time the Dzoraget power plant was commenced to work on 15 November 1932. In the same year, the first aggregate of Dzoraget HPP with a capacity of 7.4 MW was commissioned to the work, in a year the plant operated at the full installed capacity of 22.32 MW with the average annual water flow capacity of 14.92 MW.^[4] The first two aggregates of the power plant were built in 1932. The third one was constructed in 1949.^[5]

Before 2011, the power plant belonged to the

Ministry of Defense. In 2011, Dzoraget SHPP was privatized by the "Dzoraget" LTD, owned by President Serzh Sargsyan's son-in-law.^[3]^[6]

Compared to the other means of getting energy, small plants are considered ecologically friendly, though it is obligatory for ENA to buy the energy generated by SHPPs for almost 15 years. In Armenia before 2011 small plants were considered those with installed capacity lower than 10 MW. After 2011 the border of this number increased up to 30 MW, and all around Armenia Dzoraget SHPP was the only plant to benefit from this change. The company made cash surplus paid by ENA after those changes because ENA is obligated to buy energy from Small plants with a higher price because of its ecologically friendly category the "Dzoraget" LTD benefits.^[3]

Technical description

The Dzoraget hydropower plant is a

electric energy. The capacity of those aggregates is 8.8, 8.8, and 8.6 MW respectively. In addition to them, there is another aggregate, which was constructed to cover only for self-needs of the power plant to maintain the work was done by it, which has the capacity of 120 kW. It is mainly used in times of lack of the electricity in order not stop the work of the power plant. There are transmission lines connected to the generators, which conduct electricity from the hydropower plant to the regions.^[5]

Dzoraget SHPP has some deviations from its project. Its pillar is 0.5 m (1 ft 8 in) higher and 4.75 m (15.6 ft) longer than it was designed in the primary plans. There is a fish pass in the head of the plant that does not meet the defined standards and criterion. In addition to it, there is one more pillar, without a fish pass. Therefore, the natural movements of fish in the constructed pillar are impossible. There is no fish-protecting network either. Extra height and artificial waterfall create challenges for fish to move along the river in both directions. Nevertheless, as the water from the river is not used for irrigation, it causes a little negative environmental impact.[1]

Hydrology

Dzoraget river is mountain starting river, accordingly the river gets water from snow, rain and groundwater, which accounts for seasonal water regime. Water flow is the highest during spring. Observations show that water discharge is 2.66 m³/s and flow module is 19 L·s⁻¹·km⁻². The data shows that the average annual water flow figure is equal to one m³/s. In most cases the maximal discharge for the river section of Dzoraget SHPP is assumed to be equal to 56.2 m³/s.^[7]

**Monthly water energy indicators**^[8]
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Total
Average monthly discharge Dzoraget SHPP (m³/s)	0.1	0.16	0.17	1.52	2.2	2.2	0.96	0.48	0.35	0.3	0.3	0.31
SHPP average monthly capacity (mwt)	0.11	0.17	0.18	1.54	2.06	2.06	1.01	0.51	0.38	032	0.32	0.33
SHPP-average monthly energy production (mln kwt/hour)	0.08	0.12	0.14	1.11	1.53	1.48	0.75	0.38	0.27	0.24	0.23	0.25	6.58

Dzoraget River's geological composition is highly differentiated but mainly consists of volcanic rocks. There are tuff, granite, basalt, andesite-basalt.^[7] Despite the Dzoraget SHPP, it is planned to construct The Loriberd hydropower plant, with the capacity of 66 MW and annual electricity production of 200 million KWh.^[9]

Indicators	Values^[10]
Derivation capacity, kwt	2.06
Average multi-annual production of energy, mln kwt/hour	6.58
Capital investments into SHPPS(without VAT)
thousand USD	1977.4
USD / kwt	959.4
USD / kwt.hour	0.3
Prime cost of power production, cents/kwt hour	1.6

Financial data

Annual exploitation expenses for power production on Dzoraget SHPP are composed of

linear basis with 3.3% annually. For 2008 the total costs amounted to $106,300 and were composed of depreciation cost equal to $65,300 and annual exploitation expenses costs equal to $41,000- salary expenses equal to $20,200, renovation expenses equal to $15,800 and other expenses equal to $5,000.^[10]

The data from 2014 and 2013 regarding the company's financial performance indicates that it is earning a much lower profit in 2014 (AMD 289,369,000) than in 2013 (AMD 626,922,000), primarily because of increase in administrative expenses and production costs. In addition, the total amount of assets has decreased by AMD 453,747,000 primarily as a result of an increase in accounts receivables and decrease in current investments. These patterns were accompanied by a decrease in equity amounting to AMD 109,172,000, the decrease in non-current liabilities equal to AMD 351,335,00, and increase in current liabilities equal to AMD 6,761,00. There is not enough information about the company's costs and revenues, because it is a privately owned one. However, it is apparent that company earned low profits in 2014 than in 2013.[6]