Dnieper Cascade

a cascade of the electric power plants on the Dnieper River. The cascade’s six hydroelectric power plants were designed to have a capacity of approximately 3,780 megawatts (MW), taking into account the extension of the Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Plant, which has been begun, and the average annual energy output is 9.8 billion kilowatt-hours. The upper stage of the cascade is the Kiev Hydroelectric Power Plant, which was put into service in 1968. Its full capacity (including its water-storage electric power plant) is 551 MW. The second stage of the Dnieper Cascade—the Kanev Hydroelectric Power Plant (420 MW)— was under construction in 1971, and the third stage—the Kremenchug Hydroelectric Power Plant (625 MW)—began operating in 1960. The fourth—the Dneprodzerzhinsk Hydroelectric Power Plant (352 MW)—was put into service in 1964. The Lenin Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Plant (650 MW), which is the fifth stage of the cascade, began to operate in 1932, and the sixth stage—the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (351 MW)—was commissioned in 1956. Since 1969, Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Plant II has been under construction, with a capacity of 828 MW, to be used primarily to cover peak loads of power consumption in the energy system. All the hydroelectric power plants of the Dnieper Cascade are included in the Integrated Power Grid of the European USSR.

The creation of large reservoirs in conjunction with the Dnieper Cascade has made it possible to regulate the Dnieper’s flow on an annual basis and use it for electric power supply, water transportation, and irrigation of the lands in the southern Ukraine and the northern part of the Crimean Peninsula, as well as for improving the water supply of the industrial regions of the Krivoi Rog areas and the Donbas.