Official: Russia to start creating high-capacity turbine till ‘22

MOSCOW, Dec 26 (PRIME) -- The government will make the first steps to produce high-capacity gas turbines, demand for which in Russia exceeds that of Europe, until 2022, Deputy Energy Minister Andrei Cherezov told PRIME in an interview released on Wednesday.

“I think that we will see real actions aimed at production of the Russian turbine until 2022 in the framework of a joint plan with the Industry and Trade Ministry,” Cherezov said.

“Our demand by turbine capacity is higher than in all the countries of Europe combined. And as we saw with Crimea, it is important with our level of demand that turbines be produced in Russia.”

Russian companies do not produce high-capacity gas turbines, the country buys them from Siemens, which said in July 2017 that all the four turbines meant to be used on a Russian power plant on the Taman Peninsula were illegally shipped to Crimea, forcing the company to cancel its licensing agreements to sell power equipment to Russian firms and suspend then-current agreements with state-run companies.

Siemens continues to litigate with its Russian contractors, and the Russian Industry and Trade Ministry developed a three-year roadmap to launch gas turbines with a 110–170 megawatt (MW) capacity.

Cherezov also said that the launch of the Balaklavskaya and Tavricheskaya power plants in Crimea will not be postponed. “We do not plan to postpone anything. Only the Russian government can decide to do this. Two blocks are operating on the Balaklavskaya and Tavricheskaya power plants, shortcomings are being eliminated in a test mode, faults noted by the Federal Service for Environmental, Technological, and Nuclear Oversight are being removed.”

The Sakskaya thermal power plant is to reach full capacity of 120 MW in January–March 2019, he said.

Cherezov expects that capacity consumption in Crimea will grow by 7.4% to 1,499 MW in the cold season 2018–2019.

The official also said that test disconnection of the Kaliningrad Region energy system from the Baltic countries is scheduled for May 2019.

“This is necessary because the Baltic states plan the first test in a regime isolated from Russia for this summer,” Cherezov said.

The Kaliningrad Region’s power system is connected to Russia via the power networks of Belarus, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The region will become independent from the Baltic states thanks to the launch of three gas power stations this year and a coal power station next year.

In June, the Baltic states, Poland and the European Commission signed an agreement to synchronize the power grids of the three Baltic states with the grid of Europe. The Baltic countries are to leave the power system of Belarus, Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

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