Hotline of power engineering specialists:
IDGC of Centre - the managing organization of IDGC of Centre and Volga Region (part of ROSETI’s Group of Companies) summed up the first half of the heating period. The company approached it fully armed, having completely performing all preparatory activities and taken additional measures during the New Year’s holidays, thanks to which it ensured reliable operation of the power grid complex in all regions of its operations. However, the second half of January and February brought new tests to the power engineers.
The first test they had to endure in the territory of the neighbouring Leningrad region. The north-western region was hit by the “Aapeli” storm, accompanied by heavy snowfalls and gusts of wind of up to 25 m/s, which led to large-scale power supply interruptions to consumers. More than 20 thousand people were left without light and heat.
To the aid of the power engineers of Lenenergo, crews from neighbouring subsidiaries and affiliates of ROSSETI rushed. IDGC of Centre and IDGC of Centre and Volga Region sent 51 emergency recovery crews of about 350 people and more than 120 vehicles to the Leningrad region. Gatchinsky, Roschinsky and Vyborgsky districts were in the responsibility area of the grouping. The Company’s specialists located and isolated fault on overhead lines, were engaged in clearing routes. The work lasted from 17 January to 15 February.
A little later, the power engineers of IDGC of Centre and IDGC of Centre and Volga Region had to operate through bad weather already on their territory: the strongest snowfall with icy conditions came at once to several regions of their operational responsibility in the Central Federal District. The most difficult situation was in the Ryazan region, where on the night of 6-7 February, as a result of heavy snowfall, large-scale outages occurred in many settlements. Skopinsky, Spassky, Shilovsky and Ryazhsky districts suffered the most from the blows of the elements.
The Ryazan power engineers responded immediately - 65 crews consisting of 180 people, equipped with everything necessary to eliminate technological violations in remote areas, were sent to combat the effects of the snowfall. 25 crews from the neighbouring branches of IDGC of Centre and Volga Region - Nizhnovenergo, Tulenergo, Vladimirenergo, as well as IDGC of Centre - Tambovenergo and Lipetskenergo, promptly arrived to help their colleagues. A grouping of 60 people and 12 vehicles was created at the General Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations in the Ryazan region to assist power engineers in tree filing.
The restoration of power supply in the affected districts lasted all day on 7 February and the whole subsequent night. Already by the morning of 8 February, the fault recorded in the 6-10 kV and above electric grids was eliminated.
Practically on the same days, IDGC of Centre’s specialists again had to come to the aid of their colleagues - this time from IDGC of South. In the west of the Rostov region, due to abundant icing and actions of intruders, who cut off metal belts of anchor poles of power lines for delivery to scrap metal receiving points, several poles fell. As a result, the power supply of consumers of the city of Gukovo and a number of settlements in Krasnosulinsky district was interrupted. Five crews from the Belgorod, Voronezh and Tambov branches of IDGC of Centre took part in the liquidation of the emergency situation. They worked in Gukovo, where they were engaged in repairing the frame of poles, repulling wires on a 110 kV overhead line, and also removing the ice.
And on 13 February, a cyclone with strong wind and snowfall again came to the Centre and Volga Region. Its main blow fell on the Bryansk, Kaluga, Tambov, Tula, Ryazan and Nizhny Novgorod regions. The power grid complex of these regions did not receive serious damage. The reliability of power supply in certain districts, where there were single interruptions in the operation of grids, was enhanced by installed backup power supply sources. The power engineers promptly eliminated technological violations, mobile crews from the nearest branches of the energy company were deployed to the work sites, which allowed them to consolidate their forces and reduce the time needed to restore power supply to consumers. All restoration work was completed before the end of the day on 13 February.
The heating season continues, and the specialists of IDGC of Centre and IDGC of Centre and Volga Region do not lose their concentration. In total, 2,903 crews consisting of more than 12,760 people, 4,331 automotive and specialized vehicles, as well as resources of contractors, may be involved in the elimination of technological violations in all branches of the energy companies. They have at their disposal about 1,913 backup sources of power supply with a total installed capacity of about 57.68 MW, which can be used to temporarily supply power.
