Russia and Kazakhstan to revive the Soviet mega-project of the Siberia-Kazakhstan-Ural power-bridge construction
Russia and Kazakhstan intend to revive the Soviet mega-project to construct the Siberia-Kazakhstan-Ural power-bridge based on EHV 1150 kV transmission line with a length of 1900 km. The Oleg Deripaska’s En + serves the main ideologist, interested in the energy market in the European part of Russia for projects under joint venture with the Chinese Yangtze Power as well as in the development of the coal business in Kazakhstan. However, the technical condition of the line will not allow to bring it to the rated power in the near future. Moreover, still it is unclear who will pay for infrastructure project worth 40 million rubles per 1 km.
En + Group began coordination of the project which will increase the power flows between the power systems of Siberia, Kazakhstan and the Urals from the current 1.7 GW to 5 GW. The decision to run a feasibility analysis to increase a transmission capacity of the network was made in the November meeting of the Subcommittee on Energy Cooperation within the intergovernmental Russia-Kazakhstan Commission.
As a result, the Russian Energy Ministry was put in to form a working group with participation of the Federal Grid Company (FGC), System Operator UES (SO UES), “Inter RAO”, Energy Forecasting Agency (EFA) and En + that shall produce agreed conclusions on the matter to be submitted to Kazakhstan.
The power-bridge is based on already existing soviet project developed in 1980 to transfer cheap power of the Siberian power plants (including hydroelectric power plants of the Angara-Yenisei cascade and coal-fired power plants of the Kansk-Achinsk coal basin) to the Urals.
During 1985-1990 a 1150 kV power line (Itat-Ekibastuz-Kokchetav-Kustanai-Chelyabinsk) - unique as for its voltage class at the time - was built. For technical reasons, some sections of the power line from the very beginning operated at voltages of 500 kV. In 2009 the line was activated during the accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya power plant to compensate for the losses of the Siberian power.
At present, a unique 1150 kV substation equipment manufactured in 1981-1986 got out of order or was partly dismantled. Now the line operates at a voltage of 500 kV.
Power-bridge is needed to increase the power flows between the power systems of Siberia (energy surplus region with cheap electricity) and central Russia. Moreover, the head of the expert-analytical center in Energy Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (ERIRAS) George Kutovoy says, power-bridge would help using a potential of the Kansk-Achinsk and Ekibastuz coal basins and reducing fossil fuel transportation to the power plants of the Urals and the European Russia. Currently the share of gas in the fuel balance of power plants in the European part of Russia is 85%, increase in coal share in the fuel balance would free up "Gazprom" resources to deliver to foreign markets, he said. At that, gas savings can amount to 15 billion cubic meters a year.
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