Kakhovka Hydroelectric Station

Image - The Kakhovka Dam destroyed by Russian forces in June 2023.

Kakhovka Hydroelectric Station [Каховська ГЕС; Kakhovska HES]. The second-largest and southernmost of the Dnipro Cascade of Hydroelectric Stations. It was built on the Dnipro River in the years 1950–56, 12 km southwest of the city of Kakhovka, in Kherson oblast. Each of its six generators provided 58,500 kW; together they produced an annual average of 1.4 billion kWh of energy. A highway and railway traversed the station’s 3.84-km dam complex, which held back the waters of the Kakhovka Reservoir. The reservoir was 240 km long and up to 23 km wide and had a surface area of 2,155 sq km, a volume of 18.2 cu km, and an average depth of 8.4 m; its waters supplied hydroelectric stations, the Krasnoznamianka Irrigation System and the Kakhovka Irrigation System, the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant, industrial plants, freshwater-fish farms, the North Crimean Canal, and the Dnipro-Kryvyi Rih Canal. The city of Nova Kakhovka arose next to the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Station.

After the Russian Federation’s invasion from the Crimea into Kherson oblast in February 2022 and then the counter-offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, on 11 November 2022 Russian forces destroyed the road and rail sections on top of the dam, but continued to control the dam, varying the discharge of water to protect their troops on the left bank of the Dnipro River. On the night of 6 June 2023 Russian forces (though they deny it) blew up the dam at the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Station, triggering one of the largest man-made disasters in recent decades. The floodwaters impacted nearly 80 settlements with some 30,000 houses, including at least 150 multi-story buildings in the city of Kherson. This destruction compromised cooling water supply to the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant, water for some cities and irrigation systems, and caused massive environmental damage and loss of life.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kyiv School of Economics. ‘The Explosion at the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant Dam Has Caused Ukraine at least $2 billion in Direct Damages’ (Kyiv 2023)
‘Everything You Need to Know about the Kakhovka HPP Disaster,’ Ukrainska Pravda (6 June 2023)

Ihor Stebelsky

[This article was updated in 2025.]




List of related links from Encyclopedia of Ukraine pointing to Kakhovka Hydroelectric Station entry:


A referral to this page is found in 12 entries.



Click Home to get to the IEU Home page; to contact the IEU editors click Contact.
To learn more about IEU click About IEU and to view the list of donors and to become an IEU supporter click Donors.  
 
 
©2001 All Rights Reserved. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies.