Report: Power Machines suggest new power plant for Gazprom’s unit

MOSCOW, Dec 26 (PRIME) -- Russian power engineering company Power Machines has suggested construction of a 1.4 gigawatt (GW) gas thermal power plant for Gazprom Energoholding, a unit of gas giant Gazprom, to replace loss-making coal-powered Novocherkasskaya GRES power plant, Kommersant business daily reported late on Tuesday.

Sources told the business daily that Power Machines developed a plan that guarantees it sales of large-capacity gas turbines without participation in a federal program for upgrade of old thermal power plants. The company offered the market regulators an idea to build the plant under a new generation competitive capacity outtake mechanism to replace the 2.258 GW Novocherkasskaya GRES.

The new generation competitive capacity outtake was created for non-market projects in regions where deficit of power has been registered for more than three straight years. The mechanism was applied only twice – for construction of the Sakskaya central heating and power plant in Crimea and for the thermal power plant on the Taman peninsula nearby. Mass construction of new generating capacities in 2010 left Russia’s Unified Energy System with almost no power-deficit regions, Kommersant reported.

The 1.4 trillion ruble upgrade program for old thermal power plants was tied to the government’s roadmap for production of large-capacity gas turbines, so investors should cover capacities of power engineers with orders. Power Machines, which was hit by the U.S. sanctions, is considered to be the major beneficiary of the move, the business daily said.

(68.7448 rubles – U.S. $1)

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