Hydro power plant in Viloyati Sughd, Tajikistan. Approximate location 40.2759, 69.815.
HydroViloyati SughdTajikistanconventional storage
Kairakkum is a 174 MW hydro power station in Viloyati Sughd, Tajikistan. It is operated by Barki Tojik. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 174k homes (estimated). It ranks #11 of 14 Tajikistan power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 1956, it is around 70 years old — an older, legacy facility. As a non-combustion source, it has no direct CO₂ emissions from generation. In context, hydro supplies about 94.4% of Tajikistan's electricity; the national grid averages 73 gCO₂/kWh (94.4% low-carbon) (2025).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id WRI1000353.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The public capacity above is the current source-record value. A 2026 tracker candidate lists 174 MW for Kairakkum hydroelectric plant, but it is not used as the public primary value until scope is verified (unit vs operating vs installed/project total).
Capacity claim grade: A2_GENERAL_REVIEW - recommended action: manual_source_check - confidence: medium_low. This follows a claim-based data model: value + scope + source + confidence, rather than silently overwriting records.
The capacity and/or fuel fields on this page include a source-backed provenance label from GEM, an official registry, Wikidata, OSM, or a cross-source match.
capacity: GEM tracker 2026 (location L100000603550); fuel: WRI source-record fuel
At 174 MW, Kairakkum is below the median hydro plant in Tajikistan (210 MW). Technically it is described as conventional storage. Hydropower converts the energy of falling or flowing water into electricity; output depends on rainfall and reservoir level, and large dams also provide grid balancing and storage.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by Barki Tojik.
This hydro plant converts the energy of falling or flowing water through hydro turbines. It sits in a cold semi-arid steppe climate (Köppen BSk) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 40.3°N — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
Heating degree-days here run 8% below the median power plant in this dataset — a proxy for how much extra energy heated equipment must replace through its surfaces in winter.
Climate heat-demand index: 47/100 — this site sits in the mid third of the power plants we cover by heating degree-days.
Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.
For a plant’s outdoor hardware — heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG), expansion joints, valves, flanges and their insulation — the local climate sets how fast unprotected steel and coatings degrade. This site sits in a benign, low-corrosion environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C1 — Very low), with dust abrasion the leading environmental stress.
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.
The #5 largest hydro power plant of 8 in Tajikistan by capacity.
Tajikistan has 8 hydro power plants in this dataset, together about 4,389 MW of capacity.
Coordinates 40.2759, 69.815 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Kairakkum is a 174 MW source-record hydro power plant in Viloyati Sughd, Tajikistan, commissioned in 1956.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 174,198 homes (estimated).
Kairakkum is operated by Barki Tojik.
