Business news

MINSK, 5 December (BelTA) – The 330kV gas-insulated switchgear of the Belarusian nuclear power plant has been powered up by electricity from the first external line Postavy-1, the ASE Company press service told BelTA. The company is the general designer and general contractor for the project to build the Belarusian nuclear power plant. The company represents the engineering division of the Russian state nuclear industry corporation Rosatom.

The switchgear is part of the power plant’s general electric equipment and is designed to distribute and control the flow of electricity. While the nuclear power plant is under construction, the switchgear is used to provide reliable power supply for startup and commissioning operations. Once the Belarusian nuclear power plant goes online, the switchgear will be used to feed electricity to the national power grid.

A lot of work has been done to link the 330kV switchgear to the high-voltage line, which connects the Belarusian nuclear power plant and the power substation Postavy-1. “It will allow us to launch full-scale startup and commissioning operations. We will be able to perform hydraulic tests and circulation flushing. The output of the construction site power grid is insufficient for that,” noted Vitaly Polyanin, ASE Company Vice President and supervisor of the Belarusian nuclear power plant construction project.

Within the next few weeks backup transformers will be turned on and all the facilities of the first power-generating unit will be switched to permanent power lines. The 330kV switchgear will be used to feed power to the second unit in mid-2019.

The backup transformers will get power from the 330kV switchgear in mid-December. The main transformers will get power in early March 2019 for the sake of performing the hot phase of the cold and hot operation testing of the reactor unit.

The Belarusian nuclear power plant is being built using a Russian design featuring VVER-1200 reactors near Ostrovets, Grodno Oblast. The first power-generating unit is scheduled for commissioning in 2019, with the second one to go online in 2020.