The 558MW Yusufeli Dam project in Turkey’s northern Artvin province was officially inaugurated yesterday by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The Yusufeli dam and hydroelectric power project is located on the Çoruh River, upstream of the Borçka, Muratli, and the Deriner hydroelectric power plants.-

The project comprises a 275m tall double curvature concrete arch dam and a power plant equipped with three 186MW vertical-axis Francis turbine units. Each turbine unit is designed to operate at a rated head of 191m and a rated discharge of 107m3/sec.

The Yusufeli Dam created a 33.63km2 reservoir area with a total storage capacity of approximately 2.2 billion cubic metres.  The maximum crest elevation and the crest length of the dam are 715m and 490m respectively.

The dam project also involves four balanced cantilever viaducts, including the 644m-long Tekkale viaduct, the 695m-long Yusufeli viaduct, the 340m-long Yusufeli dam viaduct, and the 530m-long Silenkar viaduct, along with the construction of 110km of roads, 45 tunnels, 22 bridges, and 92 culverts.

The other components of the project include the main power transformers, a 380kV switchyard, along measuring and protection equipment.