Russian state atomic energy corporation Rosatom’s electric power division Rosenergoatom has announced it was Russia’s largest power generating company last year that also marked the 75th anniversary of the Russian nuclear industry. A Rosenergoatom statement said that ts nuclear power plants (NPPs) generated over 215.746 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity during 2020.
“We ended 2020 with an absolute record in the entire history of the Russian nuclear industry, previously achieved only during the Soviet era in 1988. Then, all NPPs produced a total of 215.669 billion kWh (including nuclear power plants in Ukraine, Lithuania and Armenia),” Rosenergoatom Director General Andrey Petrov said.
Russian NPPs not only broke the Soviet record with these numbers, but also surpassed their own achievement of 2019 (208.7 billion kWh) by more than 7 billion kWh, the statement said.
Rosenergoatom currently has 37 power units. Leningrad NPP Unit 6 with a VVER-1200 reactor is being prepared for commissioning in 2021.
The Rostov NPP with over 32.8 billion kWh, the Balakovo NPP with over 30.6 billion kWh, and the Kalinin NPP with over 28.4 billion kWh provided the maximum output among the
Russian nuclear plants and made the largest contribution to this record, it said.
Despite the decrease in electricity demand due to the reduction in industrial production associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, these significant results were made feasible thanks to the implementation of a number of measures such as maintenance of stable, safe and reliable operation of nuclear power units, cohesive work of all teams in the control loop enterprises, as well as timely measures taken by the industry leadership to prevent the spread of coronavirus infection, the statement added.
“The main factors that played a large role in increasing electricity generation were, among other things, the duration of repair campaigns being optimized by 130.5 days, which provided an additional 2.4 billion kWh, as well as transitioning from a 12-month to 18-month fuel (overhaul) cycle of the Novovoronezh NPP Unit 6”, the company said.
In addition, a floating nuclear thermal power plant (FNPP) was put into full commercial operation in Chukotka in May 2020. It has generated about 127.3 million kWh since the beginning of the year. Moreover, the new state-of-the-art VVER-1200 Unit 6 at the Leningrad NPP was connected to the country’s power grid in October.
The share of nuclear generation makes up about 19 percent of the total electricity produced in the country.
Rosatom’s Kochubeevskaya wind farm enters wholesale market
Meanwhile, as part of its strategy of diversification into other areas of clean energy, Rosatom also commissioned Russia’s largest wind farm – the Kochubeevskaya WPP – in December 2020.
A Rosatom statement said that since January 2021, the Kochubeevskaya wind farm has been supplying electricity to Russia’s wholesale electricity and capacity market.
“In addition to becoming Russia’s largest operating wind farm, Kochubeevskaya is the second project to be completed by JSC NovaWind, Rosatom’s division responsible for implementing wind energy projects,” the statement said.
Situated in the Stavropol Territory, the Kochubeevskaya wind farm consists of 84 wind turbines and has an installed capacity of 210 MW. As per Russia’s Ministry of Industry and Trade, 65 percent of the farm’s production and assembly benefited from localised sourcing, the statement added
“We were able to become a serial wind farm producer and realise the construction of the Kochubeevskaya WPP project in just two years thanks to our extensive experience in building and operating wind power plants, the successful implementation of our plan to produce wind turbine components and assemble them in a series in Russia, and our efficient supply chain, which includes Rosatom’s various enterprises,” said NovaWind Director General Alexander Korchagin.
Rosatom is currently implementing its plan to build wind farms at three more sites in the Stavropol Territory and the Rostov Region. By 2024, the company is expected to have commissioned wind power plants with a total capacity of about 1.2 gigawatt (GW).
