OREANDA-NEWS. September 22, 2009. Today in Saint Petersburg Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Valentina Matvienko, Governor of Saint Petersburg took part in the inauguration of a new turbine unit with the capacity of 50 MW (100 Gcal/hr) at the Vasileostrovskaya Combined Heat and Power Plant (CHPP).

The new equipment will substantially improve the CHPP efficiency and the overall reliability of Saint Petersburg’s energy supply system. The Vasileostrovskaya CHPP is the key source of heat and power energy for the Vasilievsky Island detached from other districts of the city and inhabited by some 200 thousand people.

As Alexey Miller stated after the event: “At present, Gazprom Group is implementing a consecutive large-scale program for the construction of new energy capacities and reconstruction of the existing ones, applying state-of-the-art technologies. Nowadays, Gazprom makes the most efficient investments into Russia’s power generation and is determined to develop this business. TGC-1alone is going to commission over 1,600 MW of new capacities until 2013.”

The new turbine unit of the Vasileostrovskaya CHPP is the fourth new unit brought onstream by TGC-1 in 2009. Efficient operation of the CHPP provides sustainable energy supplies to dozens of the city’s large industrial enterprises, for instance, the Baltic Plant, the Sea Port and the Sevkabel Plant. The new unit is capable of supplying five thousand new apartments with electric power and over a million square meters of residential space with heat.

According to Valentina Matvienko: “Once Gazprom arrived in Saint Petersburg as a strategic partner, the city became warmer, lighter and more comfortable. The capacity ramp-up at the Vasileostrovskaya CHPP will make it possible to implement new energy-intensive projects in Saint Petersburg.”