Hotline of power engineering specialists:
On 21 August 2019, in the Kursk region with the active participation of the branch “Rosseti Centre Kurskenergo”, an exercise was conducted to eliminate mass blackouts of power grid facilities caused by exposure to dangerous meteorological phenomena.
The event became an important part of preparing the electric grid complex of the Kursk region for the heating season and was carried out with the aim of developing practical skills for prompt elimination of massive technological violations caused by bad weather, checking the readiness of mobile crews, special equipment, a control and communication system to quickly respond to emergency situations, and ensuring power supply to socially significant facilities using backup power supply sources.
During the joint exercise, the effectiveness of interaction between power engineers and executive authorities and the Headquarters for ensuring the security of power supply to consumers in the Kursk region, with specialists from the EMERCOM of Russia in the Kursk region, and a subsidiary of PJSC FGC UES, the Black Earth Enterprise MES, was also tested.
According to the plan of the exercise, in the second decade of December, weather conditions worsen on the territory of the Kursk region with wind intensification up to 20 m/s, ambient temperature lowering to -20 degrees C.
Kurskenergo’s headquarters make a decision on the introduction of the high availability mode at the branch. In Distribution Zones, emergency reserve and backup power supply sources are checked.
In the future, due to a sharp drop in the ambient temperature to -25 degrees with southerly wind with gusts of up to 27 m/s and precipitation in the form of wet snow, there is a break of ground wire of the 110 kV “Sadovaya - Phosphoritnaya” overhead line circuit I with taps and the 110 kV “Sadovaya-Phosphoritnaya” overhead line circuit II with taps, which caused the disconnection of the 110 kV substations “Kamyshi”, “Schigry”, “Vinnikovo” and mass blackouts of 0.4-10 kV lines in Kursky and Schigrovsky districts of the Kursk region. The situation was complicated by the “fire” at the 110 kV “Teplichnaya” substation and, as a result, by the disconnection of a large number of consumers, including the perinatal centre in Kursk.
The power engineers immediately responded to the emergency. The operating staff took the necessary measures to isolate the fault and supply consumers on the backup lines, with the help of the backup power supply sources, emergency response crews are eliminating the consequences of natural disasters.
Upon the arrival of fire crews at the “Teplichnaya” substation, Kurskenergo’s crews ensured work clearance for the fire crew to extinguish the fire in the transformer area, promptly transferred a mobile standby power supply source to the perinatal centre and energized the socially significant facility, eliminated mass blackouts of 0.4-10 kV power lines in Kursky and Schigrovsky districts.
During the exercise, based on the results of the inspection after the emergency of the 10 kV 412.16 overhead line, it was required to replace a pole at the 110 kV “PTF” substation. A crew of Kursky Distribution Zone, accompanied by the traffic police crew, provided transportation of the pole to the installation site.
Kurskenergo’s personnel fulfilled the practical tasks of replacing the pole on the line in the prescribed time and, thus, confirmed the skills in the practical implementation of emergency recovery work outside the places of permanent deployment.
Thanks to the coordinated actions of the power engineers, clear interaction with representatives of the territorial office of the EMERCOM of Russia, as well as with the unified duty dispatch services of municipalities, the conditional emergencies were eliminated as soon as possible. Representatives of the EMERCOM of Russia and the regional headquarters praised the professionalism and efficiency of Kurskenergo’s personnel.
“Kurskenergo once again confirmed its readiness to act quickly in difficult situations, to interact with other participants in the process of power supply restoration to consumers as quickly as possible,” stressed Alexander Lapin, Deputy Head of the General Directorate of the EMERCOM of Russia for the Kursk Region for Emergency Protection, Monitoring and Prevention.
