Ukraine will need six years to rebuild Kakhovka hydroelectric plant – state water operator

Restoring the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant after its de-occupation will take about six years, the Ukrhydroenergo state water operator reports.

"The development of the experimental project for reconstructing the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant will take two years. The first stage also plans to design a temporary reservoir dam. […] The actual construction of the Kakhovka HPP itself will take about six years," the report says.

Now the company's hydroelectric plants are preparing for the heating season. Scheduled repair works and reconstruction of hydropower equipment are carried out at the stations.

As reported, Ukrhydroenergo plans that the new Kakhovka HPP will have a capacity of up to 550-600 MW instead of the 340 MW that the station produced before the destruction.

In July, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved a resolution to implement an experimental project to reconstruct the Kakhovka HPP. It is foreseen that the financing of the experimental project can be carried out at the expense of the funds of the private joint-stock company Ukrhydroenergo, credit funds, and other sources not prohibited by law.

Background

As Rubryka reported, on the night of June 6, Russian invaders blew up the Kakhovka HPP, located a few kilometers from the temporarily occupied city of Nova Kakhovka, Ukraine's southern Kherson region, which led to the flooding of villages and towns on the rivers of Dnipro and Inhulets. 

The plant, which has been under Russian occupation and control since the start of the invasion in February 2022, was completely destroyed and cannot be restored, according to the Ukrhydroenergo state water operator.

Later, the authorities banned Ukrainians from swimming in reservoirs and catching and consuming fish in the Kherson region because the flooding washed away the mines, explosives, oil products, soil, and other substances in the waters of the Dnipro River.

According to the estimates of the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Mykola Solskyi, farmers will not be able to fully use 1-1.5 million hectares of agricultural land due to the explosion of Kakhovka HPP. One hundred sixty thousand birds and more than 20,000 wild animals are also at risk of death due to the Russian destruction of the Kakhovka dam.

Oil refineries, gas stations, thermal power plants, and various warehouses were flooded in the Kherson region due to the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam — a total of 32 objects. According to preliminary information, about 150 tons of engine oil leaked into the water in the first days of the disaster.

The Russian occupiers are shelling the flooded Kherson just as people are being evacuated there. On Wednesday, June 14, Russian troops once again attacked Kherson. As a result of the shelling, two volunteers were wounded, among them a foreigner.