The Far East’s energy system is entering the heating season without any spare generating capacity. The energy reserves created in the USSR have been exhausted, says Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev.
“Unfortunately, the Far Eastern energy system is entering the autumn-winter period without the necessary reserve of generating capacity, as a number of important projects for the repair and modernization of thermal power plants had to be cancelled and postponed,” — he said in an interview with TASS Sergei Tsivilev.
He explained that the decision was made to leave the maximum amount of equipment during the period of high loads.
“But this may lead to an increase in accidents in the future. I will say more. The example of the Eastern SSW proves once again that the energy reserves created in the USSR have been exhausted. The main reason is the lack of funding for the modernization of equipment and its maintenance in normal conditions.” – said the minister.
According to him, in order to reduce risks, the Far Eastern Federal District regions are classified as high-risk regions in the power sector and measures are being implemented to reduce the accident rate and increase the reliability of thermal generation.
“RusHydro alone plans to carry out more than 1.5 thousand events at 11 energy facilities by 2029,” – Sergei Tsivilev noted.
As reported EADaily The operator of the Unified Energy System of Russia has started the procedure for public discussion of the draft General Scheme for the placement of electric power facilities until 2042. At the beginning of 2024, the installed capacity of Russian power plants amounted to 253.5 GW. At the same time, by 2042 it is planned to increase it to 302.1 GW. In fact, even more new generation will appear – 91.2 GW, as electricity production will not only increase, but will also replace outdated power plants and units.
“The age structure of generating equipment is based on equipment put into operation in 1961-1970 (42,407 million kW), in 1971-1980 (56,107 million kW) and in 1981-1990 (53,185 million kW). The total installed capacity of generating equipment put into operation before 1961 is 14,071 million kW, put into operation in 1991-2010 is 32,153 million kW and put into operation in 2011-2023 is 55,612 million kW.” – says the draft document.
