Business news

MINSK, 21 August (BelTA) – The construction of the remaining six installations needed to complete the link between the Belarusian nuclear power plant and the national power grid is past 70%, BelTA learned from a recent interview of Deputy Director General of the Belarusian national electric company Belenergo Pavel Drozd with the Respublika newspaper.

Asked about the project to allow the Belarusian nuclear power plant to deliver electricity to the national power grid, Pavel Drozd said: “We have already done the bulk of the work. The remaining six [out of 23] installations are located in three oblasts – Grodno Oblast, Minsk Oblast, and Vitebsk Oblast. As far as their readiness is concerned, I can say it is 70% and above.”

The project provides for building over 1,000km of new overhead 330kV power lines and reconstructing nearly 700km of existing power lines. Pavel Drozd explained that once the Belarusian nuclear power plant is commissioned, the power grid will have to carry more load and will need better throughput in the end. “It would be strange if we chose to build new lines without repairing the old ones since we need the entire system to operate flawlessly. This is why the project provides for reconstructing outdated power lines, too. After an inspection concrete poles are being replaced with metal ones. Defective wires and overhead ground-wire cables are being replaced,” he added.

The official stressed that the Belarusian nuclear power plant will not produce electricity without control. The control center in charge of managing the national power grid will prevent that. The electricity the Belarusian nuclear power plant will generate will be fed into the national power grid via 330kV lines. The system is designed to handle the load if several lines go down due to emergencies. Organizations in charge of operating high-voltage power lines will take care of repairs and maintenance.

Speaking about the operation of the power grid in an emergency, the official mentioned: “We have so-called ‘hot’ backup for such cases. It is a backup source of energy based on quick-response gas-turbine power plants. For instance, the Lukoml state district power plant can produce extra 150MW. We can get 250MW extra from the Berezovskaya state district power plant, 300MW from Minsk cogeneration plant No.5, and 100MW from the Novopolotsk cogeneration plant. So, in an emergency these power plants can produce extra 800MW in 15 minutes. It means the normal operation of the power grid will be restored. We can also request assistance from neighboring countries in accordance with the relevant legislation.”