Issyk-Kul Region, Kyrgyz Republic –The experts of the European Union funded SECCA project and a representative of the Green Energy Fund of Kyrgyzstan visited the Karakol-1 Small Hydropower Plant (SHPP) project site. This visit followed the kick-off meeting on conducting a pre-feasibility study of a SHPP, which was held in Bishkek on 18 July 2024.
The Karakol-1 SHPP project was proposed for a model pre-feasibility study by the Green Energy Fund. It is to be developed on the site of the former Karakol HPP, which was in operation from 1948 to 1970. It is located in the Issyk-Kul region, at the Karakol River, 1 kilometer away from the region’s administrative capital Karakol city.
The model pre-feasibility study will cover the environmental impact assessment, technical feasibility assessment, legal analysis, economic viability analysis.
During the visit, the SECCA team also met with the representatives of the local government and inspected the extant civil structures of the Karakol HPP: headworks, open derivation canal, headpond, spillway, etc., and preliminarily identified 3 alternatives for the new project layout.
Background information:
Starting from May 2023, the SECCA project has been providing technical support to the Ministry of Energy and the Green Energy Fund of the Kyrgyz Republic in development of renewable energy sources (RES). The necessary steps to be taken from RES policy development to project implementation were first introduced in one of the sessions of the Conference held within the First EU–Kyrgyzstan Sustainable Energy Days campaign; while practical aspects of small-scale RES development with a focus on small hydropower, through state-owned specialized Funds were presented in October 2023, at a technical workshop held in Bishkek. In November 2023, with the SECCA project’s support, the Kyrgyz Green Energy Fund signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Georgian Energy Development Fund (GEDF). In December 2023, SECCA and the Green Energy Fund agreed to develop a model pre-feasibility study for a SHPP. In February 2024, the Karakol-1 SHPP was pre-selected for the pre-feasibility study. On 18 July 2024, the meeting held by the Ministry of Energy of the Kyrgyz Republic, the Green Energy Fund and the SECCA project kicked off the joint work on the model pre-feasibility study for the selected SHPP.
