SOCHI, October 31 (Itar-Tass) — The entire energy system of Sochi on December 1 will transfer to the Olympic work regime. This will test new energy facilities that were built during the preparations for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games and put into operation, the press service of the Federal Grid Company of the Unified Energy System (FGC UES) told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.
This decision was taken at a working meeting devoted to the intermediate results of the preparation of the Sochi power grid facilities for test competitions and the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, which was held on October 30 by Chairman of the FGC UES Board Oleg Budargin.
Federal Grid Company is the operator and manager of Russia’s unified electricity transmission grid system, including high voltage transmission lines, and holds the status of a natural monopoly. The Company’s assets include more than 124,000 km of transmission lines and 854 substations with more than 322 GVA of 35-750 volt transformer capacity. Based on the length of transmission lines and installed transformer capacity, Federal Grid is the largest publicly traded electricity transmission company in the world.
The energy company said at the meeting that starting from October the Sochi enterprise Backbone Electric Grids (MES) of South operates in a high alert regime. The company’s own and outside personnel are involved in round-the-clock inspections of the main equipment of substations and power transmission lines, the company has concluded agreements with contractors on the rescue and recovery operations, if necessary. The enterprise has organised permanent monitoring of the meteorological situation, as well as developed cooperation with the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry (EMERCOM) department for the Krasnodar Territory and the regional Centre of the Federal Service of Russia on Hydrometeorology and Monitoring of the Environment (Rosgidromet).
“By November 15 this year it is necessary to develop and approve the structure, chart, schedule and other necessary documentation for the use of electric power during the Olympic events. By this time, all the facilities of the Sochi grid complex should be fully staffed. And starting from December the entire energy system of the Sochi power district should begin to work in strict accordance with the approved documentation. For us, for the Sochi backbone electric grids and the Kubanenergo company the Olympics begin on December 1, 2012,” Budargin said.
According to the head of the Federal Grid Company, the high alert regime will make it possible to identify all bottlenecks in the developed schemes, to timely prevent them and ultimately improve the reliability of power supply to all consumers of Sochi. “It’s no secret that during the 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the load on the power network in the region will increase significantly. So today it is necessary to take proactive measures to prevent disruptions in the energy supply to consumers of the district. Every leader of MES South and Kubanenergo is personally responsible for this,” he said.
This year, FGC UES has completed the construction of five facilities in Sochi – the 220 kV Psou, 110 kV Izumrudnaya and Vremennaya substations with the total transformer capacity of 395 MVA, the 110 kV Psou – Izumrudnaya cables and overhead line with the length of over 12.5 km, the Ice Palace - Vremennaya 110 kV cable line with the length of 2.5 km. By the end of the year it is planned to commission another 15.5 km of cable and overhead lines and 290 MVA of additional transformer capacity as a result of the modernisation of the 220 kV Poselkovaya substation and the construction of the 110 kV Veseloye substation.