Russian President Vladimir Putin during a video conference participated in the start-up of the last of the ten power units at the Sayano-Shushenskaya Hydro Power Plant (HPP), which was severely damaged in a disaster in 2009.
The ceremony marked the conclusion of the repair and the beginning of operation of the plant at planned capacity.
Putin gave the command to start the power unit after Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, who heads the presidential commission for the fuel and energy sector and the government commission for repair of the plant, and RusHydro CEO Yevgeny Dod reported about the readiness.
“I am sure that the effort will not only improve energy supply of the Siberian region, but will also contribute in general to stabilizing the work of the country’s whole energy system,” the Russian president said.
Putin noted that the start-up of hydropower unit No 2, which was most severely damaged in the disaster, is symbolic as it “completes the full restoration of the plant, which again gets the status of flagship of national energy.”
The Russian leader stressed that the work to restore and modernize the plant has brought it to a new level. The service life of power units is now 40 years and the maximum efficiency reaches 96.6%
The Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP on the Yenisei River is the largest in Russia and one of the world’s most powerful hydropower plants. On August 17, 2009, the destruction of hydropower unit No 2 occurred in the plant’s turbine room, resulting in the inflow of masses of water under high pressure. The turbine room was flooded.
The disaster killed 75 people and injured another 13. About 50 tons of turbine oil got spilled into the Yenisei River. The damage was estimated at over $13 million. All ten hydropower units were damaged and the work of the plant was halted.
The restoration works were launched in August 2009. The first stage was completed in 2010 with the launch of four reconstructed hydropower units which had suffered less damage.
During the second stage in December 2011-March 2013, five new hydropower units were mounted in the machinery room. The third stage was marked by the replacement of the four reconstructed units by the new ones and the installation of unit No 2. With its launch on Wednesday, the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP will reach its total capacity of 6,400 MW.