OREANDA-NEWS. On 06 July 2009 was announced, that IES-Holding and Volga TGC continue implementation of the company's priority investment projects, i.e. the construction of steam and gas units (SGU) at Syzran HPP and Novokuibyshev HPP-1. At the moment, the sites are being prepared for construction of buildings in the territory of the plants, where new power-generating equipment will be installed later on.

The day before the 1,000th pile was driven into the ground laying the foundation for a new building, where a modern steam and gas unit with a capacity of 230 MW will be installed. It is expected that all 1,200 piles will be set at the site and the foundation will be completely cast in July. It will enable to start the installation of base constructions for new turbines and generators, and to erect the production building.

The history of Syzran HPP - one of the oldest subdivisions of Volga TGC - is connected with development of this city as one of the industrial centers of the Volga Region. Its construction began in September, 1939 and was determined by the development of the neighboring Kashpirskiy oil shale field, which was supposed to be used for fuel supply. The Great Patriotic War delayed the commissioning of Syzran HPP, which commenced operations only on December 31, 1947. Its capacity was 12 MW. The first line of the plant supplied electric power and heat to the local refinery and two neighboring villages.

Despite the 5 years' delay (initially the start-up of production was planned for 1942), Syzran HPP became the first oil shale plant in Europe. 45 years later it was decided to replace this type of fuel with more effective and ecological energy resources, primarily gas.

As the city grew and new industrial plants appeared in its territory, installed capacity of Syzran HPP also increased. By 1991 it reached 255 MW in electric power and 1 229.3 Gcal/hour in heat.

The construction of a new steam and gas unit at Syzran HPP will become another milestone in the history on the plant. The project will enable to remove outdated turbines from operation and increase installed capacity by more than 52%, from 255 MW to 385 MW. The new power generating unit will provide for energy and cost efficiency improvement of Syzran HPP. First of all, it will allow decreasing specific reference fuel consumption: for energy generation by more than 22%, and for heat generation by more than 6%.