OREANDA-NEWS. The power engineers of JSC “Tulenergo”, JSC “Lipetskenergo”, JSC “Orelenergo” and JSC “Tambovenergo” have completely restored electric power supply to the consumers.

On the night of May 1-2, 2007 several parts of Central Russia were hit by a sudden snowfall accompanied by a gale force wind. Weather conditions deteriorated abruptly: a spell of warm spring weather was replaced by an instant freeze. Falling trees and sleet brought down and twisted cables cables of the air electric mains. More than 700 6,10 kV transformer substations (TS) in remote and sparsely populated areas of Lipetsk, Orel, Tambov, Tula and Kaluga regions were shut down by 8 a. m..
 
On the instructions of Sergey Shumakher, Technical Director of  JSC “IDGC of the Center and North Caucasus”, special troubleshooting units were established, duty brigades were reinforced, special equipment was applied, an emergency mode of control over the course of liquidating the consequences was announced in the company. According to the current order of operation messages collection and transmission of information was realized in a high-frequency mode and a duty rota involving technical executive was set up in the regional network companies of the IDGC operation area. On-site activities were realized in close cooperation with civiс defence and emergency management units.

Repair crews of the electric network companies immediately launched restoration operations to eliminate the damage caused by the natural disaster, all available special equipment has been rallied, supply of all necessary materials and devices organized.

84 repair crews worked in the disaster areas, continuously restoring the electric mains.
 
Timely measures made it possible to supply electric power to most customers who had been receiving electric power from the damaged mains and shut-down substations via back-up electric power supply schemes. First of all, electric power supply is being restored to significant public buildings.

In Tula region the power units of Suvorovskiye and Yefremovskiye electric networks were hit by the natural disaster. It should be noted that operational services of the EMERCOM Directorate in Tula region and the administration of district centers rendered important assistance in removing snow and fallen trees from access roads. Special machinery of the road service was used.

According to Victor Kalinin, acting Technical Director of JSC “Lipetskenergo”, Krasninskiy, Dankovskiy and Lebedyanskiy districts were cut off for some time on the night of May 2. Major boiler plants and hospitals were not cut off. All possible resources were applied for quickly liquidating the damage caused by the natural disaster. 14 repair teams worked on the damaged sites.

In Kaluga region 35-110 kV electric mains withstood the sudden disaster, though the 0.4-10 kV mains serving the sparsely-populated rural areas of Kozelskiy, Ulyanovskiy, Meshchovskiy and Mosakskiy districts were damaged. Power engineers of JSC “Kalugaenergo” took immediate emergency measures for liquidating the damage caused by the natural disaster: an emergency operation unit was established headed by Andrey Khapilin, acting General Director.