OREANDA-NEWS. Ahead of a professional holiday, OJSC Irkutskenergo (forming part of EuroSibEnergo Group of Companies) is to commission a R-50-130/13 steam extraction turbine (50 MW) at the Novo-Irkutskaya CHPP as part of the program to develop generating capacities. In 2004, the turbine unit ceased operation at the Ust-Ilimskaya CHPP due to a reduction in steam consumption by the Ust-Ilimsk Timber Processing Complex; in 2011, it was transported to Irkutsk. Thus, the installed capacity of the Novo-Irkutskaya CHPP increased from 655 MW to 705 MW. LLC EuroSibEnergo-Engineering acted as a general contractor responsible for performing the complete range of works, from design to construction, installation and commissioning.

Given a sufficient increase in demand for heat, which was previously satisfied by currently mothballed electric boiler houses and the city's uneconomical boiler houses using fuel oil and which now has to be met by the Novo-Irkutskaya CHPP, it was no accident that an R-50-130/13 back pressure turbine was selected. This type of turbines has no condenser; therefore, there is no need to spend money on renovating the process water supply system with cooling towers; heat consumption accounts for 100% of power generation and there are practically no losses. The turbine has been installed in the turbine hall of a functioning power plant with no changes made to the structural frame of the main building. The budget of the installation project stipulated that the cost should not exceed RUB 10 to 12 thousand per kWh of additionally installed capacity; this is almost 10 times lower than the cost stipulated in power supply agreements of Russian power generating companies (RUB 80 to 100 thousand).

The increase in the capacity of the Novo-Irkutskaya CHPP was also made possible due to the implementation of a number of projects in the past years. In 2003, a unique boiler No. 8 with an annular furnace was put into full operation (its production capacity totals 820 t/h). Between 2005 and 2008, heating main No. 4 connecting the Novo-Irkutskaya CHPP and the right bank was constructed in two stages and a number of uneconomical heat generating facilities were closed, such as the Sverdlovskaya district boiler house and the Releynaya, Lisikha and Baikalskaya electric boiler houses on the right bank. This enabled to free up additional electricity generating capacity totaling about 240 MW for the development of the city, to reassign the task of meeting consumer demand for heat in the Sverdlovsky and Pravoberezhny districts of the city to the Novo-Irkutskaya CHPP and minimize the cost of heat generation. In 2010, a second line of cross-link pipes was installed at the station in order to improve the reliability and flexibility of main equipment at the power plant.

Vyacheslav Solomin, acting CEO of OJSC EuroSibEnergo: “The power industry is one of those sectors which require constant modernization and innovation. The promising project to transfer the turbine unit from Ust-Ilimsk to Irkutsk, which was implemented by many of the Group's departments, including EuroSibEnergo-Engineering, enabled us to considerably increase the efficiency of heat and power generation within the power system of Irkutsk.”

Oleg Prichko, CEO of OJSC Irkutskenergo: “The project launched in 2011 required unusual and imaginative engineering solutions, which were successfully adopted by the Group's specialists. On November 9, 2013, the turbine was successfully certified and the power plant confirmed a new installed capacity of 705 MW.”

EuroSibEnergo is Russia's largest private power company owned by En+ Group. EuroSibEnergo operates 18 power plants with a total installed capacity of 19.5 GW. The company's major HPPs forming part of the Angara-Yenisei HPP Cascade (the Krasnoyarskaya, Bratskaya, Ust-Ilimskaya and Irkutskaya HPPs) have a total capacity of over 15 GW. EuroSibEnergo also owns coal deposits with total reserves of about 1.2 bln tons, as well as distribution and engineering companies. Power plants of OJSC EuroSibEnergo account for about 9% of Russia's total electricity output.

OJSC Irkutskenergo is Russia's largest power and coal company comprising thermal power plants and hydropower plants, heating networks, open-pit coal mines, haulers, a repair facility and a coal processing plant. The installed capacity of the Company's power plants totals 12.9 GW, with the capacity of the HPPs exceeding 9 GW. The total output of the coal mines (brown and black coal) amounts to 18.4 mln tons per year. The main shareholders of OJSC Irkutskenergo include OJSC EuroSibEnergo, Russia's largest private power company (forming part of En+ Group), which owns a 50.19% stake in OJSC Irkutskenergo, and OJSC INTER RAO UES holding a 40.007% stake.

LLC EuroSibEnergo-Engineering is a subsidiary of EuroSibEnergo, Russia's largest private power company forming part of En + Group.