State-owned enterprise National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom and JSC Turboatom (Kharkiv) signed the five year (2020-2024) program on modernizing equipment of Ukrainian nuclear power plants (NPPs) on Tuesday.
According to a press release of Energoatom, the program involves the replacement of eight turbine condensers of nuclear power reactors, including four Russian-made condensers. After replacing the condensers, the total increase in power of reactors will be about 400 MW.
The document also provides for the modernization of flowing parts of turbine cylinders with a capacity of 200 MW and 1000 MW, including five turbines with a capacity of 1000 MW as part of import substitution. Modernization includes the replacement of rotor blades on existing rotors and diaphragms, which will increase the turbine’s power and its efficiency.
It is also planned to upgrade the high-pressure cylinders of the turbines of the Zaporizhia NPP, starting in 2020. Modernization of turbines will increase the capacity and efficiency of existing reactors of Ukrainian NPPs by 10%, which will provide a power increase of 70-100 MW at each reactor.
In addition, on Tuesday in Enerhodar (Zaporizhia region), an agreement was signed between Atomkomplekt (a separate division of Energoatom) and Turboatom for the manufacture and supply of a block-modular condenser for replacing the condenser of the K K-1000-60/1500 turbine at reactor five of Zaporizhia NPP in April 2020.
The parties also discussed a long-term repair program for the replacement of used spare parts.
“Four years ago, we gave a new powerful start to our cooperation, which is not only servicing the turbine park, but also the replacement and modernization of equipment. This will allow us to increase and improve the efficiency of nuclear power plants, to increase the generation of electric energy, which is important in conditions a new market, when every additional kilowatt-hour produced gives additional income,” Energoatom President Yuriy Nedashkovsky said.
According to the CEO of Turboatom Victor Subbotin, the volume of modernization at Energoatom for five years will exceed UAH 6 billion, which is a significant contribution to the utilization of production capacities and personnel of the enterprise.
The State Automobile Roads Agency of Ukraine, also known as Ukravtodor, is developing a five-year program for repair of 24,000 km of international, national and regional highways worth UAH 500 billion, acting Head of Ukravtodor Slawomir Nowak has said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
“Now, at the request of the President’s Office, we are preparing a program of repairs of the country’s main roads of M-N-R types with a total length of 24,000 km. We are calculating about UAH 500 billion for this program for five years,” he said.
The head of the state agency said that over the past few years, Ukraine has significantly increased prices for the main materials from which the asphalt mix is made: bitumen has doubled in price, and crushed stone prices grew 2.6 times.
He also said that he was considering attracting funds from international financial institutions (IFIs) for this program: European banks and the World Bank.
Earlier, Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan said in the media that it is needed 10 years and UAH 1 trillion for the repair of roads in Ukraine.
City One Development (Kyiv) belonged to Valeriy Kodetsky, the developer of the Boulevard of Fountains residential complex located at 5, Saperne Pole Street in Kyiv, has announced the official opening of the last house of the second phase of the Boulevard of Fountains premium class residential complex.
“Four buildings were built under the project with a total area of 100,000 square meters. The project includes 811 apartments, as well as an underground parking for 1,200 parking spaces, and commercial premises. The area under the project is 4 hectares, more than one third of the territory is reserved for green areas,” City One Development told Interfax-Ukraine.
As reported, on May 17, 2019, City One Development announced the completion of the construction of the Boulevard of Fountains residential complex project. As of August 2019, more than 75% of apartments have been sold in the complex.
The project infrastructure includes areas for sports, children’s playgrounds, a panoramic lounge area, landscape areas and the only avenue in Kyiv with light and music fountains of 150 meters long.
According to City One Development, the attendance of commercial facilities along the fountain avenue, operating in the Boulevard of Fountains residential complex of city resort format this year has doubled.
“Over the three years since the opening of the first phase of the Boulevard of Fountains residential complex, more than 7,000 people visited the avenue with light and music fountains as guests. In the first eight months of 2019, the complex was visited by twice as many people as in the same period last year,” the developer said in a statement.
The agreement, under which the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) will provide $200 million for the Program-for-Results on Accelerating Private Investment in Agriculture, was signed on Tuesday by Ukrainian Finance Minister Oksana Markarovva and World Bank Country Director for Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova Satu Kahkonen.
The Finance Ministry said on its website that the attraction of the loan would allow creating a public agricultural register and open access to it, conduct stocktaking for state-owned land and place information about it in the public land cadastre, create methods for developing land utilization plans for amalgamated territorial communities and produce topographic maps of Ukraine via satellite mapping.
In addition, the loan would allow creating the unified automated system for notifying all the sides regarding changes in the public land cadastre, and strengthening the public control system on the state border of Ukraine, taking into account EU requirements.
The project will be implemented as part of the government strategy and action plan for leveraging private investment in agriculture until 2023.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky during a meeting with World Bank President David Malpass has confirmed his intention to carry out land reform, complete the unbundling of Naftogaz, demonopolize the economy and state-owned enterprises, and respect the independence of the National Bank. Malpass wrote on his FT blog following a meeting with Zelensky that at their meeting Zelensky had confirmed several key growth measures that will be mentioned at the meetings with G7: implement the land reform, split ownership of Naftogaz’ transit assets, demonopolize the economy and state-owned enterprises, and respect the independence of the central bank.
According to Malpass, to attract investment in Ukraine, it is necessary to eliminate monopolies in favor of market competition and strengthen the rule of law.
Capital should be send to the most productive enterprises but not to influential privileged circles and oligarchs, he said.
Malpass also emphasized the importance of land reform.
The country has the largest stock of agricultural land in Europe, but the yield per hectare is only a small part of the crop in France and Germany. At the same time, one oligarch controls a group of companies that produces more than 80% of domestic output of several types of mineral fertilizers, the banker said.
As reported, World Bank President David Malpass on August 22-23 for the first time visited Ukraine after he has taken this post on April 9, 2019.
The State Agency of Ukraine on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving together with the Nordic Environmental Finance Corporation (NEFCO) and experts from the Finland Ukraine Trust Fund is initiating the development of a concept for a new financial instrument in Ukraine – the Green Investment Fund (GIF UA), head of the agency Serhiy Savchuk has said.
“Work on the fund will be another priority area of partnership between the Finnish Foreign Ministry, NEFCO and the state energy efficiency agency. Close cooperation between Ukraine and Finland was secured by the signing of a relevant memorandum in 2017,” he said on his Facebook page.
According to Savchuk, the fund will provide co-financing for new “green” energy projects and remove major barriers to the implementation of these projects: a lack of collateral, demand for equity, etc.
“Our goal is to establish in Ukraine a reliable financial instrument for financing projects like Green Investment Group in the UK, DEG in Germany,” the expert said.
