The Daugava had not yet been dammed at Ķegums when, on 4 August 1936, the Cabinet of Ministers adopted the “Law on the Construction of the Ķegums Power Station.” Behind it stood a freshly signed contract with Swedish builders and a long-term loan of 11 million Swedish kronor. The first hydro unit began operating on 15 October 1939 — but the legal start was that August date, when Latvia’s energy ambition moved from drawings into a state obligation.

The Ķegums power station was Latvia’s largest engineering project on the Daugava in the 1930s. It changed the scale of electricity supply — from separate municipal power plants toward the idea of a unified national energy system.