Lake Koman, Hydroelectric reservoir in northern Albania
Lake Koman (Liqeni i Komanit) is a 34 km long reservoir on the Drin River in northern Albania, impounded by a 115 m rockfill dam at the village of Koman. It is fed by the Drin, Shala and Valbona, reaches a depth of 96 m, and is nowhere wider than 400 m; in the narrowest gorge, between vertical rock walls, it is barely 50 m wide.
The Koman reservoir was created by a rockfill dam with a concrete face built between 1980 and 1988 in the Malgun gorge near Koman village. The dam stands 115 m high and holds 600,000 cubic metres of material. Its four French turbines, originally named after Enver Hoxha, give the plant 600 MW, then the largest capacity in Albania and Southeast Europe.
Local communities maintain traditional fishing practices, and small boat operators connect isolated mountain villages along the water. These connections form an important part of daily life for people living in these remote areas.
The Koman–Fierza ferry carries passengers, bicycles and motorcycles, and since spring 2015 two car ferries also run; the crossing takes about two and a half hours. Smaller boats serve remote villages that sit high above the lake and can only be reached by water.
The Koman hydroelectric plant, originally named after Enver Hoxha, houses four turbines made in France and has a capacity of 600 MW, once the largest in the Balkans. Its average annual output of about 1,800 GWh exceeds that of the larger Fierza reservoir upstream. Low water has repeatedly forced output cuts in recent years.
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