Toktogul Dam

Toktogul Dam is a hydroelectric and irrigation dam on the Naryn River in the Jalal-Abad Province of Kyrgyzstan. It is concrete gravity dam with height of  and length of . It is a part of the Naryn-Syr Darya cascade. It is named after Toktogul Satilganov.

The Toktogul Hydroelectric Station has installed capacity of 1,200 MW, which makes it the largest power plant in the country. It has four turbines with capacity of 300 MW each.

Toktogul Reservoir (, ; ) is the largest of the reservoirs on the path of the Naryn River, a northern tributary of the Syr Darya.   The reservoir has total capacity of , of which  is active capacity.  Its length is  and its surface area is . The maximal depth of the reservoir is .

The city of Kara-Köl, south of the reservoir (downstream from its dam) housed the dam construction workers, and currently is home to the hydro power plant staff. The city of Toktogul is located north of the reservoir.

Environmental and Social Impact

The reservoir was created in 1976 after construction works on the dam were completed and the Kementub Valley was flooded. The reservoir flooded more than 26 thousand hectares of land, of which 21.2 thousand hectares of agricultural land, 26 communities including large settlement Toktogul were displaced and the main road through the region was re-routed. Archaeologists excavated barrows dating back as far as the 8th century AD before the sites were lost.

2009 crisis
Toktogul Reservoir reached a critical state with regard to the water level behind the dam in 2009. A cold dry winter, combined with sales to foreign countries as well as increased domestic demand left the reservoir at a fraction of its capacity. Electrical rationing had to be employed throughout the entire country with outages lasting up to 11 hours every day.

References

Category:Dams in Kyrgyzstan
Category:Hydroelectric power stations in Kyrgyzstan
Category:Hydroelectric power stations built in the Soviet Union
Category:Dams completed in 1974
Category:Dams on the Naryn River
Category:Gravity dams
Category:Energy infrastructure completed in 1978