Putin arrives in Khakassia to visit Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower plant

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived on a working trip to the Russian Republic of Khakassia, Southern Siberia, the Kremlin press service reported on Tuesday. The President will visit the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower plant, where he is expected to examine the engine hall and to hold a meeting devoted to the development of the electric power industry in Siberia and the Far East. Meanwhile, the participants in the meeting will focus on the electric power supplies to the flood-hit territories and safety of the hydropower facilities. Minister of Energy Alexander Novak, Chairman of the RusHydro Board Yevgeny Dod, the leadership of the Russian technological watchdog, the Federal Service for Technical and Export Control and JSC Russian Grids will participate in the meeting. The Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower plant on Yenisei River is the largest Russian hydropower plant and one of the most powerful world hydropower plants, which was built from 1968 until 2000. The main facility of the hydropower plant is a concrete dam with a height of 245 meters. Ten powerful hydropower units are located in the engine hall of the hydropower plant (six of them are operational at the present moment). The Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower plant is being restored after a major man-made disaster, which broke out on August 17, 2009. On that day the second hydropower unit was destroyed in the engine hall under a strong pressure of a large water inflow. The load on the hydropower plant dropped to zero almost immediately and the constantly inflowing water has flooded the whole engine hall for a short period of time. The second, 7th and 10th hydropower units were destroyed completely, the first, third, 4th and 5th hydropower units were cramped with metallic structures from the engine hall, the 8th and 10th hydropower units were damaged inside. Already in 2010 the four least damaged hydropower units were restored at the hydropower plant. After this RusHydro launched the second stage of restoring the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower plant, during which it is planned to install ten absolutely new hydropower units (including the replacement of four machines, which were put back into operation three years ago). The service life of new hydropower turbines will make up to 40 years with their maximal performance coefficient of 96.6 percent. New hydropower units are equipped with a more efficient system of technological protection, which envisages the automatic termination of their operation in case of inadmissible deviations from controlled parameters. At the present moment six hydropower units with an aggregate capacity of 2,840 MW are in commercial operation that makes 60 percent of designed capacity of the hydropower plant. The restoration and overhaul of the hydropower plant is planned to complete in 2014.