The refilling of Vidraru Lake has begun, and the hydrological data are favorable, and if this trend continues, we estimate the completion of the refilling in October, Energy Minister Bogdan Ivan announced on Saturday.
“To talk about good news, the refilling of the reservoir in Vidraru has begun. The hydrological data are favorable, and if this trend continues, we estimate the completion of the refilling in October. The downstream water supply is permanently ensured, without impact on the localities in the area. In parallel, we are constantly following the progress of the works, we have teams in the field and we monitor the situation through automatic systems, so that each stage is carried out in complete safety,” the minister wrote on his Facebook page.
He stressed that the Vidraru Dam was put into operation in 1966, with a designed lifespan of 30 years, currently operating for almost 60 years, “that is, double”.
“Under these conditions, the retrofit could not be postponed, because we are talking about the operational safety of a critical infrastructure for Romania. Throughout this period, I have ensured that Hidroelectrica complies with the approvals, permanently ensures raw water according to legal obligations and applies the necessary technical measures to limit the impact on the ground”, Ivan specified, according to Agerpres.
Hidroelectrica announced on Wednesday that it has started the process of filling the Vidraru reservoir, in accordance with the emptying and filling schedule approved within the Hydropower Development retrofitting project.
According to a company statement, the resumption of the reservoir marks an important stage of the project, after the completion of interventions in the water intake area and bottom emptying. The filling is carried out in a controlled and phased manner, by progressively capturing the tributaries, with permanent monitoring of the behavior of the hydrotechnical constructions and water quality parameters, especially turbidity.
In the first stage, the Topolog capture will be introduced, the only tributary that naturally flows into the Olt River basin. The secondary Limpedea and Valea lui Stan captures will remain temporarily diverted until an admissible level of turbidity is reached, in order to ensure the dilution of the discharged flows and the continuity of the population’s water supply.
At the same time, the bottom discharge no. 1 of the Vidraru dam will remain open, with an estimated flow rate between 2 and 6 mc/sec, to ensure the water supply of the Curtea de Argeș municipality, until the flood period, when the secondary captures will be able to take over this function.
The refilling process is estimated to be completed in October 2026, depending on the hydraulic conditions of this year and the natural evolution of the tributary flows.
The Vidraru HPP retrofit project, signed in 2024, has a value of approximately 188 million euros (excluding VAT) and an implementation period of approximately 7 years, aiming at the complete modernization of the equipment and increasing operational safety.
The Vidraru facility has an installed capacity of 220 MW and an average annual production of approximately 400 GWh. Vidraru Lake has a total volume of approximately 465 million cubic meters of water, of which approximately 320 million cubic meters represent the useful volume, being one of the largest reservoirs in Romania.