ENERGOPROJEKT HIDROINŽENJERING

Considering the markets outside the borders of the former Yugoslavia, the Republic of Iraq is, alongside Peru and Algeria, a country where Energoprojekt Hidronizenjering has, in the course of 7 decades of its existence, designed the most water management and hydropower facilities of utmost importance for individual regions of this country. The eighth decade of the previous century was the most fruitful in terms of cooperation of Hidroinzenjering and Iraq, so detailed design and construction documentation for several dams and hydropower plants were prepared in this period, namely: Haditha on Euphrates River, Hemreen on Diyala River, Bekhme and Mandawa on Great Zab River, as well as Badush 1 & 2 on Tigris River. Participation of our company in the construction of Mosul dam on Tigris River in the period from 1981 until 1986 can be deemed the most comprehensive and demanding undertaking considering the significance of this facility, its dimensions and challenges faced during its construction.

The fact that the realisation of all of the above facilities required accumulation of approx. 50 billion m3 of water that would be, among other things, used for electric energy generation in the plants with total installed power of 4,000 MW speaks of the scope of the structures in question. Considering the fact that the volume of the greatest reservoir on the territory of former Yugoslavia is the volume of Bileca Lake of 1.30 billion m3, it is clear that Hidorinzenjering was involved in the design and supervision of the structures for forming of 40 such reservoirs. In addition to this, total installed power of 7 hydropower plants in Iraq is almost double compared to the capacity of HPP Djerdap 1.

The Hemreen, Haditha and Mosul dams were built in the first half of the 80s. Due to very unfavorable socio-political events in the late 80s and early 90s, the further construction of the Bekhme, Badush 1 and 2 dams was suspended. Only at the end of the second decade of the 21st century, with the stabilization of the situation in Iraq, the conditions for the normalization of business were created.

Communication of the management of Hidroinzenjering with their Iraqi colleagues was sporadically maintained during the years of the crisis, but never ceased altogether, which resulted in 2020 in establishment of cooperation on updating design documentation for Makhool Dam on Tigris River. This dam and reservoir bearing the same name are located in the governorates Salah al-Din and Kirkuk with dam site section located approx. 10 km south-east of the confluence of Little Zab into Tigris River. The dam is of a combined type with total length at the crest of 3,670 m, out of which 435 m is a concrete section, whereas the remainder is an embankment. Maximum structural height of the facility is 69 m. Construction of the dam shall form a multi-purpose reservoir with total volume of 3.50 billion m3. The water from the reservoir will be partly used for electric power generation in the plant with total installed power 260 MW

Site section of the above dam was relocated in 1995 from location Fatha to an upstream location Makhool where geological and geotechnical investigations were carried out and served or preparation of Schematic Design and Feasibility Study. This documentation was finalized in 2001.

The contract between the Ministry of Water Resources of Iraq and Energoprojekt Hidroinzenjering with partner company Engineering Corporation Limited on preparation of investigation works and design documentation which would actualize technical documentation was signed at the end of last year.

The Contract stipulates submission to the Client in the first 3 months of a critical analysis of the existing technical documentation. The same period is to be used for preparation of the Program of additional topographic and geological investigation which would serve for conducting the investigations and implementation in the next phase of design preparation. In parallel with execution of field work on the location of dam and future reservoir, tests will also be carried out in hydraulic laboratory on the physical model of the spillway section  of the dam. All field work, its interpretation and analyses in hydraulic laboratory are planned to last a total of 9 months.

Sequential submission of the results of investigations and hydraulic tests will speed up the implementation of Planning Design which includes offering a technical solution for all dam sections, hydro-mechanical, mechanical and electrical equipment.

Very important activity within the contract is a study of protection of archaeological sites which includes proposing solutions that would reduce the impact of the future reservoir to the absolute minimum. The site distinguished for its size and importance is the site with remains of the city of Ashur, the capital of the ancient Assyrian Empire from the period of 2,000 B.C. and a part of the world heritage located at the tail of future Makhool reservoir.

Design team working on implementation of Makhool Dam Project hopes that Hidroinzenjering will continue the good design practice established in Iraq in the 80s of the previous century and that the quality of consultancy services rendered on this project may open the door to continuous business cooperation with Iraqi investors in the years to come.