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Localization and improvement of domestic turbines most feasible, Russian experts assume

Siemens said on July 21 it was suspending supplies of energy equipment to Russian companies

MOSCOW, August 1. /TASS/. Setting up domestic production of high-capacity turbines from scratch is unfeasible in the environment of the expiring program of capacity supply agreements and lack of long-term demand, experts polled by TASS said on Tuesday. The most feasible way is to use localization schemes and improve the first 110 MW Russian gas turbine power plant produced by UEC-Saturn, the experts noted.

"The demand for high-capacity turbines in Russia is to be about 53 units over the long term, considering the forecast growth of consumed power by 24 GW until 2035 and the need to replace obsolete turbines with the service life over 300,000 hours. 53 units constitute a significant market in absence of national projects requiring dramatic capacity increment," Russia’s Deputy Minister of Energy Andrei Cherezov said.

Still, such demand is not sufficient to deploy production facilities, he added.

Russia’s UEC-Saturn provisionally estimates the domestic market demand for gas turbine plants based on GTD-110M model as 80 units by 2030. "The completed market analysis made possible to identify hidden reserves as a huge scope of upgrade and renovation of Combined Heat and Power Plants. Furthermore, the demand for high-capacity gas turbines is in place to use them as a mechanical drive for application at perspective natural gas liquefaction plants," press service of the turbines producer told TASS.

Germany’s concern Siemens said on July 21 it was suspending supplies of energy equipment to Russian companies because, it claimed, four gas turbines provided for a power plant in Taman had been eventually moved to Crimea in defiance of EU sanctions.

There is nothing dramatic in statements of the German company, chief executive of Russian industrial holding Rotec Mikhail Lifshits said. Russia needs to have domestic turbine production but this is possible only in case of a long-term and clear demand, the expert said. "The market of gas turbines is rich. Such companies like Ansaldo Energia, MAPNA, and Mitsubishi are here to stay. If Siemens found itself in a delicate situation and is ready to lose a market portion, it will be substituted very swiftly. There is nothing dramatic in developments with Siemens," he added.