The longest-serving energy minister who built the Unified Energy System
During a US visit, Neporozhny met President Nixon and advised him to interconnect America's regional power grids. "The Americans took the advice," notes his Russian Wikipedia entry, "and now the main regions of the United States are linked by 500 kV and 750 kV transmission lines."
Born to a Ukrainian peasant family and trained as a hydraulic engineer, Neporozhny served 23 years as USSR Minister of Energy and Electrification (1962–1985), overseeing the world's largest hydroelectric stations and the Soviet nuclear power program. He drove the simultaneous construction of the giant Siberian dams (Bratsk, Krasnoyarsk, Sayano-Shushenskaya), the Volga cascade, and Central Asian high-head dams, while building nuclear plants across the USSR and creating the Unified Energy System (UES), one of the most reliable integrated power grids in the world. Under his leadership, Soviet generating capacity nearly quadrupled from 82 million kW to 315 million kW. A Lenin Prize laureate and corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric station was named after him in 2000.
Career Timeline
- 1929–1933Engineer on irrigation and hydro-construction projects in Central Asia
- 1933–1935Service in the Baltic Fleet of the Red Navy
- 1935–1940Leningrad Gidroproekt, Chirchik HPP construction, Main Hydropower Directorate of NKTP
- 1940–1954Chief engineer on hydropower projects in Central Asia, Leningrad region, and Kakhovka HPP
- 1954–1959Deputy Chairman of the Ukrainian SSR Council of Ministers and Chairman of Gosstroy Ukraine
- 1959–1962First Deputy Minister of Power Station Construction of the USSR
- 1962–1985Minister of Energy and Electrification of the USSR
- 1985–1999Retired; chaired the Council of Energy Veterans
International Energy Cooperation
While expanding the USSR's power infrastructure, Neporozhny was also a central figure in international energy cooperation. He long served as the Soviet chairman of the CMEA (Comecon) Permanent Commission on Electric Power, leading efforts to integrate the power grids of Eastern European socialist states. As chairman of the USSR National Committee, he represented the country in international energy organizations and was elected honorary president of the World Energy Conference (MIREK). He concurrently chaired the Council for the Comprehensive Use of Water Resources under the USSR State Committee for Science and Technology. During a US visit, he advised President Nixon to interconnect America's regional power grids, a recommendation the Americans later adopted with 500 kV and 750 kV transmission lines, which he regarded as a mark of his international influence.