Pļaviņas Hydroelectric Power Plant

The Pļaviņas Hydroelectric Power Station is the largest hydroelectric power plant in the Baltics and one of the biggest in the European Union. It is located in the Latvian town of Aizkraukle on the Daugava River. It has ten individual water turbines, with a total installed capacity of 894 MW. The construction sparked an unusual wave of protests in 1958. Most Latvians opposed the flooding of historical sites and a particularly scenic gorge with rare plants and natural features, such as the Staburags. The construction of the dam was endorsed in 1959, however, after the purge of relatively liberal and nationally oriented leaders under Eduards Berklavs and their replacement by Moscow-oriented, ideologically conservative cadres led by Arvīds Pelše. The plant was put into full operation in 1968. Between 1991 and 2001, six additional turbines were added to the original four, increasing the capacity to 868.5 MW. Reconstruction and overhaul of the units between 2007 and 2010 increased both the efficiency of the plant and its power output to 908 MW. In 2016, the plant produced 1,386 GWh.

Power station data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).