Yakutskaya GRES: main characteristics, modernization

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Yakutskaya GRES is the main source of electricity in the Republic of Sakha. This is the world's first power plant built on permafrost. At the moment, it is also the only such facility on earth that operates in a climatic zone where the difference between winter and summer temperatures is no less than 100 oС.

Where is the Yakutskaya GRES

This facility is located directly on the territory of Yakutsk itself, in its northeastern part, not far from Lake Khamustakh. The Lena River is less than a kilometer from this station. The exact address of YAGRES is as follows: Yakutsk, Zagorodny quarter, st. Krzhizhanovsky, 2.

History of the station

The construction of the Yakutsk State District Power Plant began in 1966. Its project was approved by the USSR government far from immediately. Disputes about the expediency of building a station beyond the Arctic Circle at that time flared up serious. But the decision to build this "extreme" facility in Yakutsk was finally made.

The GRES was supposed to start its work on December 30, 1969. However, due todue to the ruptured gas pipeline, the launch date of this important facility for the country was disrupted. The builders of the station had to urgently eliminate the consequences of the accident. As a result, the GRES was launched, but only on January 9, 1970. On that day, the first gas turbine with a capacity of 25 thousand kW started working at the station.

The second unit of the Yakutsk State District Power Plant started operating at the end of the same year. The first stage of the station reached its design capacity in about 12 months. From that moment, the acute shortage of electricity that existed in the republic at that time was removed.

The construction of the second stage of the station began in 1974. The construction of this facility was completed in 1985. The last turbine at this station was launched in 1982.

GRES Features

Unlike many other similar facilities, the Yakutskaya GRES operates in a closed energy system. Stopping this station will turn into a real disaster for the republic. After all, if this happens, most of the population of Yakutia will be left without electricity, heat and water. And the air temperature in the republic can drop to -50 in winter oC.

Thus, the Yakutsk State District Power Plant is a very important facility. To avoid any incidents, the station pays maximum attention to such an issue, for example, as timely preventive maintenance and repair of existing equipment. Checks of the operation of turbines, generators, etc. at YaGRES are carried out very often. Also, the company's management is carefully approaching such an issue as the selection of personnel. Workers at YaGRES workexceptionally highly skilled.

GRES management

The owner of the station for 2017 is OAO AK Yakutskenergo. This Russian energy company, in turn, is part of RAO ES of the East, owned by JSC RusHydro. The first director of the Yakutsk State District Power Plant was V. A. Khandobin. This man lived a long busy working life and had many government awards. V. A. Khandobin was engaged in active social activities even after his retirement. Unfortunately, quite recently - November 16, 2017 - he passed away. Today, the enterprise is headed by R. A. Iskhakov, who was appointed to this post in the summer of 2016. Previously, he worked at the same station, but as chief engineer.

GRES characteristics

This station can operate not only on natural gas, but also on diesel fuel. At the same time, it functions like a classic CHP. That is, it produces not only electricity, but also heat. For the Arctic, this design of the power plant is the most relevant and expedient.

Provides this facility with heat and light at the moment nine uluses of the Central region of the republic. YaGRES accounts for 94% of all electricity consumed by the population of this part of the region. In addition, the station is also one of the main heat suppliers for the city of Yakutsk.

A total of eight modern turbines operate at YaGRES (four in two lines). The installed electric capacity of Yakutskaya GRES-1 for 2017 is 368 MW. The thermal potential of this station is 573 Gcal/hour.

How heat is generated

Initially, YaGRES was built exclusively for electricity generation. Its design was finalized with the addition of CHP functions in 1971. At that time, special elements were installed on the gas turbines of the station - network water heaters. As a result, the residents of Yakutsk were provided with cheap heating and HW. Water is heated at the station from the exhaust gases leaving the turbines into the pipe. That is, the heat from the state district power plant is very cheap - practically free.

Reconstruction

Several decades have passed since the launch of YaGRES. Repairs at the station throughout the entire period of its operation, of course, were carried out. So, for example, modernization was carried out here in the late 80s. However, by the beginning of the 2000s, the GRES equipment installed back in Soviet times began to become obsolete. Therefore, in order to ensure the reliable operation of the station, its management decided to carry out its large-scale reconstruction. The first work in this direction at the Yakutskaya GRES was carried out at the beginning of the 2000s.

In 2005, the reconstruction of the first stage was completed at the station. Its four Soviet turbines, which had a capacity of 25 MW, were replaced with new 45 MW gas turbines. As a result, the electric potential of the plant increased from 240 to 320 MW. The thermal power at the same time increased to 572 Gcal / h. In 2010, an emergency power source consisting of 4xGT-12 was installed at YaGRES. After that, the station's capacity increased to 368 MW available today.

Yakutskaya GRES-2

Despite the fact that reconstructions were carried out at YaGRES, this station still does not cope with its task as efficiently as we would like. Therefore, in 2014, a decision was made to build the second Yakutskaya GRES. RusHydro announced a competition among those wishing to build it. The new station has become one of four projects for the construction of power facilities in the Far East invested by this company.

YAGRES-2 was supposed to be launched at the end of 2017. However, unfortunately, it had to be connected to the power system of Yakutsk earlier - in early October of this year. The decision on emergency launch was made in connection with the accident at YaGRES-1. If the station had not been launched, the population of Yakutsk and several other districts of the republic would have been left without heat and light.

Like the first power plant in Yakutsk, YaGRES-2 also works as a thermal power plant. Its electrical power is 170 MW, and its thermal power is 469 Gcal/h. That is, this station is a very good help for the larger-scale first YaGRES.

Fire at Yakutskaya GRES 2017

The incident was reported at the first Yakutsk media station on Sunday, October 1, 2017. On this day, there was a pop and oil fire at the transformer substation of the state district power station. After some time, the fire covered already about 70 m2 meters of the area of the room.

Emergency services managed to put out the fire at the Yakutskaya GRES fairly quickly. However, the station itself supplies energy to the network of the republicstopped. As a result, the city of Yakutsk and the territories adjacent to it turned out to be de-energized. Ten districts were left without electricity. In addition, the supply of cold and hot water to the population was cut off.

In the explosion at the state district power station, one person was also injured - a worker who was at the time of the cotton in the transformer substation. After the incident at YaGRES, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation initiated a criminal case under the article “Violation of safety rules.”