Hotline of power engineering specialists:
Employees of Rosseti Centre Belgorodenergo took part in large-scale joint exercises to eliminate consequences of emergencies caused by accidents at power facilities at low temperatures. The interdepartmental training became part of the preparation of the electric grid complex of the Belgorod region for the heating season.
During the exercises, the participants were given the task to develop practical skills for prompt elimination of mass technological violations caused by bad weather. First of all, it was necessary to assess the readiness of mobile crews, special equipment, control systems, communications for a quick response to emergency situations, to ensure the organization of temporary power supply schemes for socially significant facilities using backup power supply sources. The most important was the task of checking the effectiveness of interaction of power engineers with executive authorities, local self-government, specialists of the General Directorate of the Ministry for Emergencies of Russia in the Belgorod region, a branch of JSC SO UES Kursk Transmission Control Centre, a branch of PJSC FGC UES - Chernozem enterprise MES, a branch of PJSC Quadra - “Belgorod generation”, contracting companies to attract additional forces and means when organizing emergency recovery work in the electric grid complex.
According to the training scenario, on 16 December 2019, the weather conditions sharply worsened in the Belgorod region. Ambient temperature sharply increased from minus to 00C, heavy snowfall began, accompanied by a strong wind with gusts of up to 27-30 m/s. As a result, due to wet snow sticking to wires, trees falling on power lines, massive blackouts began in 10 districts of the region. In total, as of 10:00 am, 1,109 transformer substations, 160 power lines of 6-10 kV, 4 overhead lines of 110 kV were de-energized. As a result, 104 settlements, 126 socially significant facilities, more than 99 thousand people were left without electricity.
The power engineers immediately began to repair the damage. The situation was taken under control by the headquarters for ensuring the security of energy supply in the Belgorod region. The operational headquarters of Rosseti Centre Belgorodenergo organized emergency repairs. To increase efficiency, the head car was located in close proximity to places of massive technological disruption.
After receiving data on the blackouts, Belgorodenergo introduced a special mode of operation. Mobile units equipped with necessary forces and means to restore power supply to consumers were alerted. The necessary special equipment was delivered to the places of damage. Specialists of the industrial safety and production control department previously checked that the emergency response crews had all the necessary tools, devices and special equipment.
First of all, the power engineers fed socially significant facilities of the region, for which they involved 13 mobile standby power sources. 48 first responding and repair crews of Belgorodenergo, 65 specialized vehicles, specialists of five contracting companies and all the structures involved in the exercises took part in the emergency recovery work. For remote diagnostics of power lines, an unmanned aerial vehicle was raised into the sky, which made it possible to quickly determine the presence of damage.
As a result of well-coordinated joint actions, the power supply to the de-energized consumers was restored as soon as possible.
Acting First Deputy Director - Chief Engineer of Rosseti Centre Belgorodenergo Mikhail Malykhin noted: “The exercises were successful. Once again, we worked through all the important organizational issues and became convinced of the readiness of all responsible services to quickly make decisions on eliminating technological violations caused by adverse weather conditions. “It was very important to develop practical skills of interaction and information exchange between Belgorodenergo, municipalities, rescuers and all participants in emergency recovery work, which is very important for rapid restoration of electricity supply to consumers.”
