Chaira Hydro Power Plant

Chaira Pumped Storage Hydro Power Plant
Chaira Pumped Storage Hydro Power Plant
	Belmeken Dam
Country	Bulgaria
Location	Pazardzhik Province
Coordinates	42°9′32″N 23°52′15″E / 42.15889°N 23.87083°E
Status	Not operational since April 2022 following turbine failure in Unit 4
Opening date	1995 (units 1 and 2); 1999 (units 3 and 4)
Owner(s)	NEK EAD
Reservoir
Creates	Belmeken reservoir
Power Station
Installed capacity	864 MW

The Chaira Pumped Storage Hydro Power Plant (Chaira PSHPP) was built in the Rila mountain range, about 100 kilometres (62 mi) southeast of Bulgaria's capital city, Sofia. Part of the major Belmeken–Sestrimo–Chaira Hydropower Cascade, Chaira has generating capacity of 864 megawatts (1,159,000 hp) and a pumping capacity of 788 megawatts (1,057,000 hp). The power plant is equipped with four reversible Francis pump-turbines, each rated at 216 megawatts (290,000 hp) in the generating mode, and 197 megawatts (264,000 hp) in pumping mode. Units 1 and 2 have been in operation since 1995, and at that time Chaira was the largest pumped-storage plant in southeast Europe with the highest head in the world for a single-stage pump turbine (690 metres (2,260 ft) generating and 701 metres (2,300 ft) pumping). Units 3 and 4 came online in 1999. The pump-turbines and motor-generators were supplied by Toshiba, and three of them were manufactured under Japanese supervision in Bulgaria. The upper basin for Chaira is formed by the Belmeken Dam which connects to the pumped storage plant by two headrace tunnels with a diameter of 4.2 metres (14 ft) and two penstocks with diameter 4.4 metres (14 ft), reducing to 4.2 metres (14 ft).^[2] Outflow from the Belmeken reservoir supplies the Sestrimo Hydro Power Plant

References

^ Pouring millions from empty into the void Archived 2022-07-03 at the Wayback Machine
^ Chaira PSP Archived 2011-07-21 at the Wayback Machine

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[Bankwatch-1] Pouring millions from empty into the void Archived 2022-07-03 at the Wayback Machine

[NEC-2] Chaira PSP Archived 2011-07-21 at the Wayback Machine

[1]

[2]

v t e Power plants in Bulgaria with more than 100 MW installed capacity
Nuclear power plants	Kozloduy - 3,760 MW Belene - 2,000 MW
Thermal power plants	Maritsa Iztok 2 - 1,470 MW Varna - 1,260 MW Maritsa Iztok 3 - 900 MW Bobov Dol - 630 MW Ruse Iztok - 600 MW Maritsa Iztok 1 - 500 MW Maritsa 3 - 240 MW Republika - 180 MW Sofia - 130 MW Sofia Iztok - 100 MW
Hydro power plants	Belmeken–Sestrimo–Chaira Cascade - 1,575 MW (Chaira - 840 MW, Belmeken - 375 MW, Sestrimo - 240 MW, Momina Klisura - 120 MW) Dospat–Vacha Cascade - 500 MW (Orphey - 165 MW, Devin - 88 MW, Tsankov Kamak - 86 MW, Krichim - 80 MW, Teshel - 60 MW) Batak Cascade - 254 MW (Peshtera - 136 MW, Aleko - 71 MW, Batak - 47 MW) Kardzhali - 170 MW Gorna Arda - 160 MW Ivailovgrad - 110 MW