Hydropower in Russia: Case Study on Hydrological Management of the Volga-Kama Cascade

The capacity of hydroelectric power plants (HPPs) in the Russian Federation (RF) exceeds 50 GW. It is about 20% of the total capacity of all power plants in the country. The Volga River basin is the biggest in Europe with the catchment area of 1 360 000 km2. It covers the most populated and most industrialized part of the European Russia. The largest cascade of reservoirs in Russia and Europe is the Volga-Kama cascade (VKC) constructed in 1930–1980. It consists of 12 great water reservoirs and HPPs with total capacity about 12 GW. The main peculiarity for the VKC management is the combination of different requirements by various economy sectors: safety, energy, navigation, water needs for domestic and industrial services, agriculture and fishery, recreation and ecological rules. These sectors often make conflicting demands for the VKC operation. The VKC management principle is to balance and satisfy all of them taking into account the changing climate and economical effectiveness. Modern decisions for the VKC management are based on two principles. First is the constant optimization of the whole VKC management rules, taking into account both climate change and the Strategy of the country development. The second is the constant technical modernization of the VKC equipment to achieve the best economical effectiveness and safety for ecosystems and population.