Argazinskaya Hydroelectric Station

The Argazinskaya hydroelectric power station is an abandoned small hydropower plant on the Miass River in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, near the village of Bayramgulovo; together with its dam it created the Argazi Reservoir, now a drinking-water source for the city of Chelyabinsk.

Before the station itself was built, dams already stood at this spot on the river: the first, for local mills, in 1853, and in 1927 a new, larger dam further downstream, which became the basis of the future reservoir and of the station's increased capacity. Construction of the plant in its present form is dated to 1939; through the 1930s and 1940s the older hydro station was rebuilt — work continued even during the Second World War — and thanks to lower construction costs the renovated plant was fully commissioned in 1946, fitted with turbines of a combined 1.2 MW capacity.

In later decades Soviet energy policy focused on large hydropower plants, and interest in smaller ones like Argazinskaya faded. After a 1982 reconstruction that enlarged the reservoir, the station stopped operating: its turbines were eventually dismantled, and the reservoir itself became a drinking-water supply for Chelyabinsk. Today the plant is not in operation, though there are plans to restore it, especially given the falling water level of the Argazi Reservoir in recent years.