Georgia win for Salini Impregilo

Salini Impregilo has won the US$ 575 million engineering procurement & construction (EPC) contract for the design and construction of the Nenskra hydroelectric project in the mountainous region of Svaneti, Georgia.

The client for the project is the JSC Nenskra Hydro consortium, comprising the Korea Water Resources Corporation [K-water], a government agency, and by the Georgian Government. The scheme will have an installed power of 280MW, and is designed to help guarantee energy requirements in the winter, while maximising energy exports in the summer.

The scheme comprises a main dam, a weir on the Nakra river, a transfer tunnel, a headrace tunnel to the powerhouse and an open-air powerhouse fitted with four vertical-axis Pelton wheel turbines.

The weir on the Nakra river will be 9 m high and 50 m long at its crest. From here, the 14.4 km long, 3.5 m diameter transfer tunnel will water to a new reservoir. The 183 million m3 capacity reservoir will form behind the 135 m high, 820 m crest-length rock fill main dam. From here the water will travel down the 15.6 km long, 4.5 m diameter headrace tunnel to the powerhouse.

The construction schedule is 62 months form the signing of the contract.

The work will have to be completed in 62 months from the signing of the contract, which was signed in the Georgian capital Tbilisi at the end of August in the presence of Georgia’s Prime Minister, Irakli Garibashvili and Minister of Energy, Kakha Kaladze, among others.