Upper Beyhan Dam And HEPP

Upper Beyhan, known as the Beyhan-1 Dam, and its powerplant, is located in Elazığ province of eastern Türkiye. It forms a reservoir with a net storage volume of 670 million m³ by impounds water from the Murat River, a tributary of the Euphrates, and the country’s third largest river in terms of flow discharge.

It is the first large-scale infrastructure project conceived and realized as part of a cascade of 4 projects developed by Kalehan Energy in different districts along the lower stretches of the Murat River, under a “finance-build-operate- transfer” contract for a concession period of 49 years, with a combined hydropower capacity of 2,350 MW.

Kalehan Energy, a special project company set up by Özaltın and Cengiz Investment Companies, in which both founders own fifty percent (50%) of shares, owns, maintains, as well as operates this 582.10-MW hydropower plant.

The development of the dam project consists of an RCC (roller compacted concrete) gravity structure 364 meters long, along with a separate conventional vibrated concrete (CVC) gravity spillway section with a crest length of 157 meters, adjacent to the RCC portion, located on the left abutment of the dam. The dam stands at a height of 86 meters and spans 521 meters in length at the crest.

The powerhouse hosts four (4) vertical shaft Francis turbine-generator sets, each with rated capacity of 183.5 MW, and one eco-flow unit rated at 31.6 MW, reaching an installed power 582.10 MW. The construction of the project started at the beginning of 2010, and plant reached full operating capacity in May 2015 with the activation of the fourth generating unit. It is currently generating 1.6 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of clean, renewable electricity.

The project contributes in advancing the economic development of the country, improve its energy security and mitigates climate change risks by reducing reliance on fossil fuels.