Hotline of power engineering specialists:
In January 2016 low temperatures settled in the territory of the Smolensk region. Over the last week the thermometer did not rise above -10 C. With the onset of cold weather power engineers of IDGC of Centre – Smolenskenergo division strengthened supervision of substation equipment and power lines, made vehicles and specialized machinery available. The specialists of the branch conducted additional inspections of the substation equipment, and also checked communications means and uninterruptible power supply units. First responding mobile crews of Smolenskenergo are equipped with necessary tools, materials and transport. All these measures made it possible without interruption of power supply to consumers in the region to see the Christmas and New Year holidays in, and not let the cold weather affect the reliability of the energy complex of the company.
"Winter is the responsible time for power engineers: energy facilities operate at low temperatures, which creates unfavourable conditions for the staff and for the operation of electrical equipment. In addition, in the settled in January 2016 in Smolensk conditions because of failures in heating networks during which for a few days residents of entire neighbourhoods had no heating and hot water, increased power consumption. People had to be heated with appliances, because of which the load on the network increases. At the same time we are doing everything possible to provide consumers with electricity without failures and blackouts," commented Deputy General Director - Director of the branch Sabir Agamaliev.
Due to the measures taken, professional and operational work of the staff the low temperature with periodic transitions at 0 C (which especially adversely affects the operation of electrical equipment), did not impact the reliability of electricity supply and did interrupted power supply. The power supply of consumers in the region in January was without interruptions and outages.
According to weather forecasts by the end of the week it is expected to get colder to - 22 C at night. At present, the power system is operating normally, there are no outages with consumers and social facilities. In the event of emergency situations at power grid facilities Smolenskenergo’s specialists will take all measures to eliminate them as soon as possible.
For reference:
The average temperature in Smolensk for 01-19.01.2016 was -10 (compared to the same period in 2015 the average temperature was - 2 C)
The average consumption of the city of Smolensk (population, businesses, factories, etc.) for 01-19.01.2016 - 206 MW (01-19.01.2015 - 182 MW)
Thus the overall power consumption of Smolensk in the first weeks of January 2016 increased by 10% compared to the same period last year.