PJSC Ukrhydroenergo began start-up operations at the hydroelectric unit four of the Dnistrovska pumped storage power plant (PSPP) on December 22 and plans to complete the work on launching the unit in summer 2021, the company has said.
“The launch took place as usual, and all systems worked in accordance with the program. Absolutely all parameters of the hydraulic unit, temperature and vibration modes are normal. This is just the beginning of a whole stage of important work, which we plan to complete in six months and put the hydraulic unit into commercial operation,” Chief Engineer of Ukrhydroenergo Vadym Rassovsky said.
Earlier, the head of the company, Ihor Syrota, announced his intention to put hydroelectric unit four of Dnistrovska PSPP into industrial operation in the first quarter of 2021
Preparatory work for the construction of Dnistrovska PSPP began back in 1983, the first unit was launched in 2009, the second in 2013, and the third in 2015. The capacity of unit four will be 324 MW in generator mode and 421 MW in pumping mode.
A total of seven hydroelectric units with a total capacity of 2,268 MW (324 MW each) in generator mode and 2,947 MW (421 MW each) in pumping mode are planned to be built at the PSPP.
Ukrhydroenergo operates all large hydroelectric power plants located on the Ukrainian sections of the Dnipro and Dniester Rivers. The total installed electric capacity of the hydroelectric power plants of the generating company is 5,744.8 MW. The state represented by the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine fully owns the company’s shares.
Ukrhydroenergo by the end of this year seeks to hold a tender to attract a partner with experience of extending operating lives of hydroelectric facilities, Ukrhydroenergo CEO Ihor Syrota said at a press conference in Vyshgorod (Kyiv region). “The scientific and technical panel would soon determine the terms of reference: what research and works should be carried out to make decisions on extension of operating lives of hydroelectric facilities. After receiving the terms of reference we will hold a tender to select persons who have the respective experience. It is likely that they would be foreigners. There might be a Ukrainian company, but with the involvement of foreign experienced experts,” he said.
Syrota said that the projected operating life of hydroelectric facilities of Ukrainian hydroelectric power plants (HPPs) is 100 years. For the Dnipro HPP it would expire in 15 years and for the rest of the plants – later. “However, we start working on the issue of the extension of the operating lives now,” he said. He said that Ukraine need to design a core document regulating the extension of operating lives of hydroelectric facilities and have approved it by the Cabinet of Ministers or the Energy and Coal Industry Ministry.
Ukrhydroenergo operates all large hydroelectric power stations located in the Ukrainian sections of the Dnipro and Dniester rivers. The total installed capacity of the company’s hydroelectric power plants is 5,748 MW. The state represented by the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry fully owns the company’s shares.
EXPERIENCE, HYDROELECTRIC, OPERATING, PARTNERS, UKRHYDROENERGO
