Georgia

Namakhvani Hydropower

Engineering services for a hydropower cascade

Georgia

Namakhvani Hydropower

Namakhvani hydropower cascade, envisages the construction of two hydropower schemes on the Rioni River with a total installed capacity of 435 MW.

The project stems from the need to satisfy the country’s growing electricity demand, followed by Georgia’s desire to be independent from an energy point of view. Therefore the main objective of the project is to increase the hydroelectric generation capacity of the country by exploiting the available water potential of the Rioni river. This will improve the country’s energy security, reduce dependence on oil and also allow to export electricity during the period September-April, primarily to Turkey.

Studio Pietrangeli is very proud of assisting Georgia’s Government providing all the engineering services for the preparation and implementation of the construction of the project, contributing to make Georgia, as member of Energy Community, play an important role in the planned integration of power systems and energy trading with Turkey, Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia.

The two hydropower plants, Tvishi and Namakhvani, have an Installed power of 100 MW and 335 MW respectively.

Both projects include RCC dams. Tvishi includes a gravity dam, 56 m high, while Namakhvani includes an RCC arch gravity dam, about 100 m high.

The modern technology of Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) is adopted since guarantees shorter construction period and lower costs (lower cement content, faster on site work, etc.).

The waterways consists mainly in power tunnels, varying from 0.3 km (Tvishi) to 4.3 km (Namakhvani) of length.

The two power waterwyas are outdoor type.

An alternative layout adding a third plant, Zhoneti hpp, was carefully studied.