OREANDA-NEWS. Power Machines have manufactured and tested, ahead of schedule, a turbogenerator stator with a capacity increased to 1100 MW, to be used as a reserve stock at Balakovskaya NPP.

A respective contract was signed with Balakovskaya Nuclear Power Plant, a branch of Rosenergoatom Concern, in September 2013. As scheduled in the contract, the equipment had to be delivered by May 2015.

The stator has been delivered as a result of the cooperation between Rosenergoatom Concern and Power Machines as part of the Russian NPP generating equipment renovation and life restoration programme. The programme, developed with the participation of Power Machines and expected to run from 2010 to 2015, is aimed at ensuring reliable turbogenerator operation and also increasing turnaround intervals, while at the same time increasing capacity.

In implementing the programme, Power Machines have already renovated turbogenerator rotors for four power units at Balakovskaya NPP, two power units at Kaliniskaya NPP and also for the first power unit at Rostovskaya NPP. As a result, the capacity of each turbogenerator increased from 1000 to 1070 MW. Similar work is done by engineers of the power engineering company from St. Petersburg on smaller generators, ranging from 200 to 500 MW, installed at Kurskaya NPP, Leningradskaya NPP, Smolenskaya NPP, Kolskaya NPP and Novovoronezhskaya NPP. With the work finished, the capacity of generators will increase from 220 to 250 MW and from 500 to 550 MW, respectively.

As the programme is implemented, the service life of generators, manufactured by Power Machines, will be extended by 25 years; for 500 MW turbogenerators, the turnaround interval will be extended to two years, while NPPs with 220 and 1000 MW turbogenerators will extend their turnaround interval to 18 months. The time between overhauls for all types of turbogenerators will be extended from four to six years.

The implementation of the programme will ensure that Russian NPP power units are available to operate efficiently enough to meet the world's best power generation and cost efficiency level.