Peru
Peru’s topography, with the Andes running the length of the country, and many fast-flowing rivers, endows the republic with an enormous hydro-electric potential. Its hydro capability is assessed as one of the largest in the whole of South America: its economically exploitable capability is some 260 TWh/year. Current utilisation of this capability is very low – about 5% in 1999. Hydro provides about 75% of Peru’s electric power.

Plants under construction at end-1999 were San Gabán (110 MW), Yanango (42 MW) and Chimay (142 MW), all of which were completed during 2000. Other schemes (including the 525 MW Cheves project on the Huaura river and a 134 MW plant at Yúncan) have faced delays as a result of a temporary moratorium on hydropower development, but work at Yúncan is now going ahead.

Russian Federation
Russia’s hydro resource base is enormous – the gross theoretical potential is some 2 800 TWh/year, of which 852 TWh is regarded as economically feasible. The bulk of the Federation’s potential is in its Asian regions (Siberia and the Far East). Hydro output in 1999 (161 TWh) represented 19% of the economic potential and accounted for 19% of total electricity generation.

At the end of 1999 installed hydro-electric generating capacity was some 44 GW; according to Hydropower & Dams World Atlas 2001, 5.1 GW of additional capacity was under construction and about 17 GW of further capacity was planned for installation in the period up to 2020.

The largest plants under construction are Bureya (2 000 MW) on the river Bureya in the Far East and Iganai (800 MW) in the Caucasus.

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