Inguri Dam

The Enguri dam ( also Russian Inguri dam ) is the shut-off building a dam on the river Enguri in Svaneti in the west of Georgia. It is located on or near the border with Abkhazia. Georgia and Abkhazia operate it together.

With 750 meters wide and 271.5 meters high the dam is the most powerful building in the Caucasus. It is also the highest arch dam in the world and currently the third- tallest completed dam in total. It was built by the Georgian company Hydromscheni. It lies at an altitude of 240 meters above sea level. This must be - because of the wall height of 271.5 meters - refer to the foundation bed.

The dam was commissioned in 1988 after 20 years of construction, in operation, in parts already in 1978. The wall consists of interlocked concrete blocks that were placed on reinforced limestone rock. The reservoir holds 1.1 billion cubic meters of water and has an area of ​​13.13 square kilometers. The associated underground Enguri hydroelectric power plant produces about 4.5 billion kilowatt hours, approximately 40 % of Georgia's electricity production. The capacity is 1,300 megawatts.

Due to poor care of the dam and power plant are in poor condition. A damaged sealing member, a so-called Stoplog, the dam go annually around 500 million kilowatt-hours lost, that's almost a quarter of the electricity consumption of the Georgian capital Tbilisi. The plant currently uses only 40 percent of its capacity. Only four of the five existing generators operating. On the Abkhaz side of the dam hydropower plant Wardnili works. It has four generators, one of which since the Civil War in 1993 but only one works.

By 2006, the dam and the power plant should be fully repaired by the Georgian side. Repair costs were estimated at 147 million U.S. dollars. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Assistance ( EBRD) has provided 38.8 million U.S. dollars for the repair of four generators available in 1998. The European Union gave further 9.4 million euros from the TACIS program for the repair of another generator and the defective Stoplogs.

The performance of the Inguri hydroelectric power station is located after the repair work now at 950 MW ( at theoretical maximum possible 1300 MW), the water level at 510.1 meters (as of early 2010). Georgia will soon export electricity to neighboring countries.