Chagino is finally being reconstructed

In a year and a half, the substation should become the most modern in the world

Large-scale reconstruction work has begun at the notorious Moscow Chagino power substation . Yesterday, the management of the Trunk Energy Networks (MES) of the Center, part of the Federal Grid Company, assured journalists that by the end of next year, the most modern equipment in the world will be installed on the territory of the substation, which will help avoid accidents like the one that happened on May 25, 2005.

On that day, as is known, during the heat there was a fire on one of the Chagino current transformers with a voltage of 110 kV. As a result, the switch and three more transformers were damaged by shrapnel, and a number of substations with a voltage of 110 kV were automatically de-energized, Mikhail Svarnyk, chief engineer of the Moscow enterprise MES Center, recalled yesterday. However, this situation only gave rise to the accident: at the same time, at another large Moscow substation, Ochakovo, five of the seven 220 kV lines were disconnected (mainly due to falling trees). As a result, the Ochakovo lines that remained in operation could not withstand the sharply increased power due to the fire at Chagino, so other substations then began to automatically shut down, which caused the shutdown of some power plants. The southern, southwestern and southeastern regions of Moscow, the Moscow region, as well as areas of neighboring regions (Tula, Kaluga, Ryazan) were left without electricity. One of the main reasons for the accident was said to be outdated equipment - the burnt-out transformer was 48 years old, and it was necessary to stop using it back in 1987. And at the Chagino substation this was not the only transformer manufactured in 1957. Much other equipment was also outdated and had long expired - “it simply worked miraculously,” said the head of the MES Center, Misrikhan Misrikhanov, yesterday.

“Previously, money was always invested in networks on a residual basis,” says Misrikhan Misrikhanov. - And if the networks were mainly built in the 50s and 60s, then nothing was invested in the 80s. And the worst thing is that in the early 2000s everything was poorly exploited: everyone thought that reform would begin and the networks would go somewhere. Now it’s clear: the main investor in the network will be the state, because FSK will be 75% owned by the state, because backbone networks are the country’s security.”

After the accident, Mr. Svarnyk continued, the Federal Grid Company was faced with two tasks. The first is the replacement of “critical” equipment, primarily transformers with voltages of 500, 220 and 100 kV. This work has already been carried out, Mr. Svarnyk claims (the burnt-out current transformers have already been replaced with new ones manufactured in Zaporozhye). Moreover, as you know, it started at the Ochakovo substation much earlier than at Chagino. “New equipment can work for quite a long time, it has a standard service life of 25 years, imported equipment can work even longer - up to 30 years,” he is confident. Reliability systems have also been improved.

The second task is to carry out a complete reconstruction at the substation and transfer to gas-insulated equipment. The main difficulty, according to him, is the need to carry out work without limiting power. But the power engineers, says Mr. Svarnyk, have already developed a plan on how this can be done, and in December 2008 a new substation will operate - with underground cables, new transformers and other SF6 equipment. “The advantage of SF6 equipment is that it has higher throughput parameters, is environmentally friendly and very compact,” says Mr. Svarnyk. “If now the equipment is located on 20 hectares, then the new one will occupy only a three-story building measuring 120 by 45 m. And of course, this is more reliable equipment.” As a result, 18 hectares of the 35 hectares currently occupied by the substation will be transferred to the city, he claims.

“According to the agreement between RAO UES of Russia and the Moscow government,” says Mr. Misrikhanov, “FGC must reconstruct in Moscow (by the end of 2008 - Ed. ) four substations with a voltage of 500 kV (“Chagino”, “ Beskudnikovo", "Ochakovo", "Zapadnaya". - Ed. ) and about 20 substations with a voltage of 220 kV. The total investment volume is more than 50 billion rubles.” Of this, about 10 billion rubles will be spent on Chagino.

Nikolay GORELOV