OREANDA-NEWS. June 27, 2011. Kardonnaya substation was officially put into operation after completion of renovation activities. The ceremony was attended by Yuri Berg, Governor of the Orenburg region, Andrey Efremov, Minister of Economic Development, Industrial Policy and Trade for the Orenburg region, Aleksandr Chevychalov, Chief Physician of the Orenburg regional clinical hospital, deputies of the City Council and representatives of the Contractor. Renovation activities started in 2010. To ensure safe and reliable power supply for residential users, hospitals and public facilities of Orenburg, Kardonnaya substation was switched from voltage class 35 kV to voltage class 110 kV. According to the long-term program for development of electric power grids of the regional center, consumer contract demand will amount to 1.3 MW by the year 2013. To eliminate power shortage in the long run, two old transformers were replaced with new ones, with the aggregate capacity of 50 megavolt *ampere. This substation supplies power to the residents of the central districts of the city, the regional clinical hospital, the library of Orenburg State University, Regional Court, the new administrative building of Gazprom dobycha Orenburg, LLC .

Aleksandr Chevychalov, Chief Physician of Orenburg clinical hospital, says that the hospital, like no other consumer, relies upon the safe and uninterrupted power supply. “For any hospital, a reliable power supply is crucial not only in terms of functioning of diagnostic, therapeutic, resuscitation and intensive care equipment, or ensuring comfortable environment for patients and staff. In fact, in some instances uninterrupted power supply is a matter of life and death. Most of sophisticated medical equipment and apparatus used in our hospital are energy-intensive. Residents of Orenburg may feel safe, as we can ensure reliable operation of our equipment”, he adds.

According to Viktor Kazhaev, Director of Orenburgenergo and Deputy General Director of IDGC of Volga, JSC, the renovation project provided for use of state-of-the-art electrical equipment. Oil circuit breaker was replaced with SF6 circuit breaker. 10kV cells – with advanced cells with vacuum circuit breakers. All this equipment featuring higher levels of quality and reliability is provided by the Russian manufacturers. The activities are not restricted to the capital city of the region, but cover the western and southern parts of the region as well. Enterprises of Orenburgenergo are performing refurbishment operations on the exterior lighting networks in a number of settlements of the Orenburg region.

Yuri Berg, Governor of the Orenburg region, points out that the regional government is well aware of the challenges of exterior lightning in villages and settlements, and this issue is addressed by the joint efforts of the regional government and Orenburg power engineers. According to the campaign “Well-lit Region”, activities scheduled for 2011 include refurbishment and construction of hundreds of kilometers of exterior lighting networks in settlements of Tashlinsky, Pervomaisky, Abdulinsky and Severny districts.