Hotline of power engineering specialists:
IDGC of Centre - Tambovenergo division conducted in the Tambov region unscheduled large-scale exercises to work out actions in the event of liquidation of mass outages of power grid facilities caused by impact of hazardous meteorological phenomena. In addition to Tambovenergo’s employees, representatives of the General Directorate of the EMERCOM of Russia for the Tambov Region, the Fire and Rescue Centre, a branch of PJSC FGC UES - Upper-Don PMES, and other power companies operating in the region, took part in them.
According to the legend of the exercises, the EMERCOM issued an emergency warning about the arrival of a cyclone in the region, accompanied by wet snow and winds with gusts up to 27-32 m/s followed by a drop in temperature to -15°C and icing. Taking into account the weather forecast, the crisis management centre under the leadership of Vladimir Syshchikov, Deputy General Director - IDGC of Centre - Tambovenergo division director, decided to introduce a high availability mode in the branch. Further, according to the scenario, the emergency outage of four 110 kV overhead lines occurred, which resulted in the de-energization of 778 transformer substations, which interrupted power supply to about 19,000 residents and 125 socially significant facilities in Tokarevsky, Zherdevsky and Mordovsky districts of the Tambov region.
Opeartors of the Grid Control Centre (GCC) of Tambovenergo immediately after taking the operational information about the failure took measures to eliminate its consequences. In a prompt order, a repair scheme was developed, five crews of the power line service and 15 vehicles of the branch, as well as forces and means of Upper-Don PMES took part in their conduct. Performance of work was controlled by the operational group of the regional department of the EMERCOM of Russia. Throughout the exercises, information was exchanged between the operators of the GCC of the branch and the Emergency Management Centre of the EMERCOM.
The subsequent stages of the exercises included the deterioration of the meteorological situation and the advance of the active cyclone along the central part of the region from west to east, as a result of which an emergency outage of 48 6,10 kV overhead lines and 607 transformer substations occurred. Without light there were more than 33 thousand residential customers and 115 socially significant facilities of Michurinsky, Tambovsky, Sampursky, Rasskazovsky and Inzhavinsky districts. Eight first responding and repair crews were sent from neighbouring Distribution Zones of Tambovenergo to the districts affected by the disaster, provided with backup sources of power supply. A request was sent to IDGC of Centre’s Crisis Management Centre to attract two mobile units of Lipetskenergo for the emergency recovery operations in Michurinsky district.
As a result of the coordinated actions of all the participants in the exercises, the conditional emergency situation was promptly liquidated. The normal power supply scheme was restored in the weather-affected districts.
The results of the exercises were discussed at an extraordinary meeting of the crisis management centre for ensuring electric power security in the Tambov region under the leadership of Deputy Head of the regional administration Igor Kulakov. According to the participants of the centre, the exercises were successful, all the planned activities were carried out promptly and in full, thanks to the well-coordinated work of all the participants.
