en.Wedoany.com Reported - Kyrgyzstan's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Water Resources, Agriculture and Processing Industry, Erlist Akunbekov, along with Deputy Minister of Energy, Salavat, recently visited the Naryn River in Jalal-Abad Oblast to inspect the Uch-Kurgan Hydropower Renovation Project, which is being implemented by China Electric Power Engineering Co., Ltd. (CEPEC), a subsidiary of China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) under China National Machinery Industry Corporation (Sinomach), as the EPC general contractor.
The Uch-Kurgan Hydropower Station, built in the 1960s, was a key early hydropower project in Central Asia and is currently undergoing modernization by CEPEC.
Commissioned in 1962 and in operation for over six decades, the station faces multiple challenges in its renovation, including a significant lack of original construction drawings and technical archives, discrepancies between existing data and actual on-site conditions, and complex interfaces between old and new equipment and systems. The project is being carried out on a unit-by-unit basis, with "power generation during construction," involving multi-disciplinary cross-work within the powerhouse. Differences in Chinese and foreign technical standards and construction philosophies add to the pressure of on-site coordination and safety risk management.
To address these challenges, the project team has adopted a deep localization and integration management model, forming a local professional team to assist in on-site parameter surveys and site inspections to compensate for the lack of basic data. An organizational structure of "dual chief engineers + dual technical teams" has been established, with the Kyrgyz team liaising with the owner and local authorities, and the domestic team coordinating with design institutes and construction units, creating a collaborative and synergistic operational mechanism. Technically, CEPEC has deployed technical personnel to conduct comprehensive reverse surveys and on-site mapping to rebuild the site database. To resolve equipment interface incompatibilities, interface modifications and system commissioning were completed through simulation testing and scheme comparison. Recently, the reverse power transmission test for the T1 main transformer was successfully passed in a single attempt through the collective efforts of all team members.
According to the renovation plan, the project team will upgrade the station's original four 45MW Kaplan turbine units, increasing the capacity of each unit from 45MW to 56MW. Several subsidiaries of the group are involved in the construction, with China Jikan Geotechnical Engineering Co., Ltd. responsible for left bank dam repair, dam curtain grouting, and dam safety monitoring, and Tianjin Electric Power Research Institute supplying governor equipment, diesel generators, and oil, gas, and water auxiliary equipment. Currently, the stator hoisting for the third unit has been successfully completed.
Upon full completion of the renovation, the operational efficiency of the units will increase by 33%. Once the entire project is operational, it will enhance Kyrgyzstan's clean energy supply capacity and improve the safe operation level of the local power grid. The CEPEC project team will continue to advance the renovation of the remaining units, accumulating experience in large-scale hydropower technical transformation and localized management of overseas projects.
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