The Votkinsk Hydroelectric Station (Russian: Воткинская ГЭС) is a dam

Dam

A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...

 and hydroelectric power station on the Kama River

Kama River

Kama is a major river in Russia, the longest left tributary of the Volga and the largest one in discharge; in fact, it is larger than the Volga before junction....

 along the border of Perm Krai

Perm Krai

Perm Krai is a federal subject of Russia that came into existence on December 1, 2005 as a result of the 2004 referendum on the merger of Perm Oblast and Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug. The city of Perm became the administrative center of the new federal subject...

 and Udmurtia

Udmurtia

The Udmurt Republic , or Udmurtia is a federal subject of Russia . Its capital is the city of Izhevsk. Population: -History:...

, Russia. It is 30 km (19 mi) south of Votkinsk

Votkinsk

Votkinsk is an industrial city in the Udmurt Republic, Russia. Population: It is the birthplace of the composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky who spent the first eight years of his life here: today the house of his birth contains a museum dedicated to the composer.The town was established in April...

 and its main purpose is power generation and navigation. The power station has a 1,020 MW installed capacity and the dam also supports a ship lift. Construction on the dam began in 1955, the first generator was operational in 1961 and the last in 1963. The entire project was complete in 1965.

Design

The dam has a maximum height of 34 m (112 ft) and a length of 4790 m (15,715 ft). It is composed of a combined 365 m (1,198 ft) long concrete power station and 191 m (627 ft) long spillway

Spillway

A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of flows from a dam or levee into a downstream area, typically being the river that was dammed. In the UK they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways release floods so that the water does not overtop and damage or even destroy...

 section which are both flanked by the embankment dam

Embankment dam

An embankment dam is a massive artificial water barrier. It is typically created by the emplacement and compaction of a complex semi-plastic mound of various compositions of soil, sand, clay and/or rock. It has a semi-permanent waterproof natural covering for its surface, and a dense, waterproof...

 portion. The embankment portion of the dam contains 20899000 cubic metre of soil and 884400 cubic metre of rock, drainage and filter placement. The concrete structures of the dam, namely the spillway and power station comprise 1236600 cubic metre.

The power station is 269 m (883 ft) long, 22.5 m (74 ft) wide and 28.3 m (93 ft) high. It contains 10 x 102 MW Kaplan turbine

Kaplan turbine

The Kaplan turbine is a propeller-type water turbine which has adjustable blades. It was developed in 1913 by the Austrian professor Viktor Kaplan, who combined automatically adjusted propeller blades with automatically adjusted wicket gates to achieve efficiency over a wide range of flow and...

-generators. There are six transformers ranging from 110-550 kV.

Votkinsk Reservoir

Votkinsk Reservoir

The Votkinsk Reservoir , is a reservoir formed by the dam of the Votkinsk Hydroelectric Station on the Kama River in Perm Krai and Udmurtia, Russia. The reservoir filling took place in 1962-1964. The Votkinsk Reservoir has a surface area of 1,120 km² and a water volume of 9,4 cubic km. Its...

holds 9400000000 cubic metre of water of which 3700000000 cubic metre is active or "useful" capacity. The reservoir's catchment or drainage area is 184000 square kilometre while its surface area is 1120 square kilometre and its maximum depth is 28 m (92 ft). It is 365 km (227 mi) long and a maximum 10 km (6 mi) wide.