Tsankov Kamak Hydro Power Plant
The Tsankov Kamak Hydroelectric Power Plant, also Tsankov Kamak HPP, comprises an arch dam and hydroelectric power plant (HPP) in Tsankov Kamak, southwestern Bulgaria. It is situated on the Vacha River in Smolyan Province, on the borders of Pazardzhik Province and Plovdiv Province, roughly 40 kilometres (25 mi) southwest of Plovdiv and downstream (north) of the town of Devin. It is a part of the Dospat-Vacha cascade development of the Vacha River involving five dams and power stations within the Devin municipality, 250 kilometres (160 mi) southeast of Sofia. The other four dams are Dospat Dam, Teshel Dam, the Vacha Dam and the Krichim Dam.
The Tsankov Kamak dam is the first double curvature arch dam in cupola shape in Bulgaria. It has a maximum dam height of 130.5 metres (428 ft). It is the second in the cascade series from the upstream end, and the last to be developed. Apart from power generation, the other objectives of the five projects are use of water resources for irrigation, drinking and household water supply. While the cascade development started in 1958, construction of the Kamak power plant started on 29 April 2004 and was completed in 2011. Initial estimated cost of the project was Euro 220 million financed by many banks and equipment manufacturers, including VA TECH Finance, Bank Austria Creditanstalt, BNP Paribas Fortis, Raiffeisen Zentralbank, Société Générale, and Credit Suisse First Boston. However, the final cost of the project has far outstripped the original estimates due to topography, geology and also possible corruption, which were not assessed at the investigation stage of the project.
The carbon emission reduction due to building the Tsankov Kamak HPP is assessed at about 200,000 t CO2 (228,000 tons of СО2 including the four rehabilitation projects of the cascade). This credit is transferred to the Austrian carbon-credit program under the Joint Implementation Project mechanism which was agreed for the project within the framework of the Kyoto Protocol to partially meet the project costs. For the reduced emissions, Austria compensates Bulgaria at the rate US $10 per ton of carbon emissions. The Joint Implementation Project has two components, one is the Implementation of the Tsankov Kamak HPP and the other is the rehabilitation of the electro-mechanical components of the other four projects in the cascade development. Two more HPPs, the Vacha I and the Vacha II, with total installed capacity of 20.6 MW, are located in the lower part of the cascade.
Read more about Tsankov Kamak Hydro Power Plant: Natural Landscape, Construction
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