Upper Kaleköy Dam and HEPP

Upper Kaleköy, referred to as Yukarı Kaleköy, and its associated infrastructure is a greenfield 626.85 MW capacity dam and power plant located on the Murat River, a main headstream of the Euphrates, in Bingöl province, in eastern Türkiye. It forms a reservoir to create a storage volume of 890 million m³.

This is the second of a cascade development of 4 projects structured by Kalehan Energy in different regions along the lower course of the Murat River on a “finance- build-operate-transfer” (BOT) arrangement for a concession period of 49 years, with a combined installed capacity of 2,350 MW on the lower reaches of the Murat River basin.

Kalehan Energy, a special project company formed by Özaltın and Cengiz Investment Companies with fifty percent (50%) shareholding for each founder, owns, operates, maintains as well as operates this power station.

The development of the project entailed a roller compacted concrete (RCC) gravity dam, with a length of 467 meters together with a separated conventional concrete spillway with a crest length of 68 meters located on the left abutment of the dam. The dam has an overall crest length of 535 meters and an average hydraulic height of 137.50 meters from the riverbed.

The semi-underground powerhouse is configured to accommodate three (3) vertical-axis turbine generator units, each rated at 199.4 MW, and one smaller unit rated at 28.65 MW, with a total installed capacity of 626.85 MW. It is now producing an average output of 1.917 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of renewable electricity annually, supplementing the state grid on a regular basis. The project execution began in 2012 and was placed into commercial operation during the year 2018.

The plant helps meeting the country’s fast growing energy demand, reduces thermal power generation as well as gas emissions, and will also ensure electricity availability for its increasing population.

Yukarı (Upper) Kaleköy Dam and HEPP was awarded the first prize in the category of “BEST PROJECT” at the 8th International Symposium on RCC Dams held in China in November 2019 by the International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD) and the Spanish National Committee for Large Dams (SPANCOLD).