OREANDA-NEWS. The Far East division of Rostekhnadzor issued the Statement of Conformity of Completed Permanent Facility with Technical Regulations and Project Documentation, thus officially confirming the end of construction of the Hyundai Heavy Industries electrical equipment manufacturing plant in Artem town.

The plant is expected to start producing 110kV-500kV gas-insulated switchgears (GIS) for the needs of the electrical power industry of Russia as soon as early next year.

The plant is designed for manufacturing up to 350 GIS bays per year, which should cover up to 50% of FGC UES demand for this type of equipment. Application of GIS allows reducing the area of substations by three to five times, decreasing operating costs twofold, protect substation equipment against external effects, and meet the most up-to-date environmental requirements. Presently, there is no commercial production of 220-500kV GIS in Russia, so the necessary equipment is purchased abroad.

The construction of the plant was started in August 2011, when a long-term supply contract for electrical equipment with the localization of production in the Russian Federation was signed between FGC UES, JSC and Hyundai Heavy Industries. According to the agreements achieved, the Korean company will perform assembly and commissioning works, certification and attestation of products in conformity with the Federal Grid Company’s requirements, provide services for the electrical equipment, and arrange training of FGC UES, JSC personnel in assembling, commissioning, operation and maintenance.

The new plant is a state-of-the-art environmentally sustainable enterprise. Reaching its full output capacity, the enterprise will create additionally 400 new jobs in the region.

“Launching GIS production in the Primorsky Krai is a milestone event in the development of Russia’s power industry and in the partner relationships between Hyundai Heavy Industries and Federal Grid Company”, Roman Berdnikov said. “The plant’s products will upgrade the national power grids and contribute to better reliability and efficiency of electrical power supply”.