Belgorod power engineers celebrated their professional holiday

In the building of the Belgorod State Philharmonic a solemn meeting devoted to the Power Engineers’ Day was held, which is traditionally celebrated December 22 — in the shortest daylight hours of the year. This year, it was one of the frostiest.

Because of the strong cooling December 18 at 09.00 p.m. historical high energy consumption in the Belgorod region was recorded. According to Belgorod Transmission Control Centre it was 2140 MW with average air temperature −17,8 °C. This figure exceeds the previous high power consumption, which was recorded February 7, 2012 with average daily temperature −19,1 °C, by 8 MW.

The Russian energy system also set another record December 19: the power consumption at 10.00 a.m. was 156,336 MW, with average air temperature in the country −22,3 °C. The record makers were also some other regions, in particular the Moscow and Tyumen power systems.

Despite the extreme cold, Belgorod power engineers are coping with the maximum load, ensuring reliable operation of the electric grid.

There are schedules that allow to provide sufficient power reserve in the grid, good preparation for the winter was performed. Only under the target reliability program this year 13 high-voltage substations were reconstructed, 700 million rubles were spent on modernization of 0.4-10 kV distribution networks — in the region more than 4 thousand km of power lines were constructed and reconstructed. To perform the repair campaign — the main component of the preparation of the electric grid to ensure reliable operation in the winter — the power engineers spent 208 million rubles. More than 1.5 thousand km of power lines, 90 high-voltage and over 600 transformer substations were repaired. About 1000 hectares of ROWs along overhead power lines were cleared off sprouts.

Deputy General Director of IDGC of Centre — Belgorodenergo division director Roman Tkachenko, congratulating his colleagues, noted that in many ways the year of 2012 was a success. The investment program of Belgorodenergo exceeded 5 billion rubles, half of which were spent on the development, grid connection of new customers to networks, and the second half — to improve the reliability and reconstruction. Around 13,000 contracts for grid connection of consumers to electric networks were signed. Along with this residents of the region filed 20 percent more requests than in 2011. This indicates that the region is developing, new enterprises are commissioned, the volume of construction is increasing and the power engineers in turn provide the necessary reserve of capacity.

One of the major projects is the construction and reconstruction of street lighting networks along the major highways of the region: Belgorod-Shebekino-Volokonovka, Razumnoye-Sevryukovo Novosadovy, Belgorod-Pavlovsk, Makarenko str. (Belgorod) — settlement of Razumnoye, Line 1-1 in Starooskol city district, South-Western bypass of Stary Oskol, sections of the road “Korocha-Gubkin-Gorshechnoye” Sergievka — Gubkin and Evgenevka — Bobrovy Yards. In total about 160 km of street lighting networks along 95 km of road were installed. For lighting a total of 3,378 energy-efficient lighting fixtures were installed.

Deputy General Director of IDGC of Centre for Economics and Finance Konstantin Orlov said that Belgorod power engineers are always a step ahead and are an example for their colleagues in other regions: “For many years Belgorodenergo continues to lead in the implementation of innovative technologies, and the experience of the branch with success is rolled out in other regions of the company. This also applies to the interaction with the regional authorities in solving the problems of socio-economic development, and implementation of the latest energy-efficient technologies.”

The same day, the best employees of Belgorodenergo received their well-deserved awards. The best creative bands of Belgorod congratulated the power engineers on their professional holiday.