Another unit of the Orlik hydropowepr plant in operation after 2002 floods

The unit underwent a complicated process of repair and renovation after 2002 destructive floods, when most of the hydropower plants in the Vltava Cascade were put out of operation, and the power plants of Orlik and Stechovice were entirely damaged. Orlik is the most important and the largest power plant in the Vltava Cascade (capacity of 4 x 91 MW). "The opening of the second unit at Orlik has significantly increased the possibility to offer and realize regulatory and supporting services for the CEZ Technical control centre and the CEPS Control centre (the operator of the transmission system). The turbines of the Orlik hydropower plant can now process the rate of flow of 300 m³ per second. Otherwise, the water from the reservoir would be discharged without use of bottom outlets or by spillways, owing to the topical inlets of 190 m³ per second", said Ales Tomec, director of the CEZ hydropower plants.

Repairs of the remaining two units, and thus complete renovations not only of the Orlik power plant, but also of the whole Vltava Cascade, will be finished in the second half of 2004. The last flooded unit of the Stechovice hydropower plant will be put into operation this year, and the floods will finally become history.

The total damage to the property of CEZ caused by the floods reached the amount of 766 million crowns. Hydropower plants numbered among the damaged sources were the following: Orlik, Stechovice, Korensko, Kamyk, Vrane, the Melnik coal-fired plant, and the Ledvice pumping station of cooling water. Besides the flood damage to production equipment, there was damage to other property (stocks, computers and telecommunications, outbuildings).

Ladislav Kriz,

Press Officer, CEZ

9. 2. 2004