The Kargi power plant is being built near the town of Osmancik in Corum province in northern Turkey. The power plant will utilise a 75-metre elevation difference in Turkey’s longest river, Kizilirmak, and will be Statkraft’s second hydropower plant in Turkey following the opening of the Cakit power plant in the autumn of 2010. The licence to build and operate the Kargi power plant for 49 years was issued by Turkey’s Energy Market Board Authority (EMRA) in 2007.

Dam 13 metres high

A 13-metre-high dam will be established that will dam about 10 kilometres of the river. The total affected area will be 4 square kilometres, of which 3 square kilometres are agricultural land. No homes will be affected by the dam. The highest regulated water level will be 405 metres above sea level. It will be possible to lowering the water level by 2.5 metres, which will result in a reservoir that can be tapped through the turbines in about 15 hours. This means that the power plant will be able to exploit variable power prices during the course of a 24-hour period.

The earth dam will be approximately 500 metres long. A spillway with a fish ladder will be established at the southern end of the dam, while the intake to the power plant will be built at the dam’s northern end. An 11.5-km tunnel will run from the intake and northwards. The power plant will be built above ground on the shore of what will become the reservoir for the power plant further below (330 metres above sea level). On the 15-km stretch where water is taken from the river for power generation, both minimum water flow and extra water will be released for irrigation purposes.

More power plants being planned

Kargi is the second-largest of three projects in the Turkish portfolio purchased by Statkraft in June 2009. Statkraft’s first power plant in Turkey, Cakit at 20 MW, started commercial power production in June 2010, and was officially opened by the Turkish Minister of Energy, Taner Yildiz in October. If all of the projects are realised, the plants will have a total installed capacity of about 640 MW and an annual average production capacity of about 2000 GWh.