Terrorists Attack Hydropower Plant in Russia

At least four militants reportedly stormed into a hydropower plant in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus region early this morning, shooting dead two security guards before detonating four bombs in a turbine hall and shutting down the plant.

The 74-year-old, 25-MW Baksanskaya station will be shut for at least six weeks and up to two months, Ali Sottaev, director of RusHydro’s unit in the southern Russian Kabardino-Balkaria republic, said on the NTV television channel today.

The attack is the latest by Islamist rebels on Russian economic targets. Reuters reports that the Kremlin has been trying to contain an insurgency on its predominantly Muslim southern region of Kabardino-Balkaria. Rebels are said to stage attacks on civilians and police nearly every day there. The region is close to Sochi, where the 2014 Winter Olympics will be held.

The bombs damaged two of the plant’s three units but failed to cause a breach in the dam, officials said. A fire caused by the explosions had been extinguished by midday. Power supplies were not disrupted.

RusHydro said the company had stepped up security at all of its hydropower plants in southern Russia.

The company is still reeling from an explosion at its Sayano-Shushenskaya dam in Siberia in August last year, a disaster that killed 75 people. As a result of damage to hydro power unit No. 2, water ejected from the turbine’s crater. The water flooded the machinery hall, power and auxiliary equipment were damaged, and the frameworks of the machinery hall building collapsed. All 10 hydropower units were damaged.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin officially restarted the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydro power plant in February by launching on-grid operation of the 640-MW unit No 6. In April, RusHydro announced it had completed a scale model of the new Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroturbine. The plant is expected to be fully restored in 2014.

Sources: Reuters, ITAR-TASS, RusHydro, POWERnews