Power of change: Russia will create about 60 turbines by 2029
Russia plans to build about 50-60 gas turbines with a total capacity of 7 GW by 2029 inclusive, said Evgeny Grabchak, Deputy Minister of Energy of Russia. The expert community noted that recently a number of Russian regions have been experiencing energy shortages. Given the growth in energy consumption, there is a need to increase generation capacity. What problems the companies are facing now and how the authorities plan to help this sector - in the material of "Izvestia".
Dependence on imports
The main problem is Russia's dependence on imported gas turbines, which were previously purchased from Siemens and Alstom, Maria Girich, an expert of the Russia - OECD Center of the Institute of Economic Research of the Presidential Academy, told Izvestia.
- At the same time, the need to produce its own turbines was noted back in 2019, when the Ministry of Industry and Trade held a tender with the allocation of state subsidies for the construction of 22 turbines by 2032. "To date, the project to build a domestic gas turbine of large capacity has been realized by Rostec in the Krasnodar region," she noted.
At the moment, the government subsidizes R&D costs for the development of high-capacity gas turbines. The Ministry of Energy plans to provide quotas for gas turbines in terms of projects to modernize old TPPs.
- Generating companies mainly face the fact that the equipment was imported, and after the sanctions were imposed, there are many problems with this," Artem Deev, head of the analytical department at AMarkets, confirmed to Izvestia. - Including with the operation of imported equipment. That is why import substitution was one of the main goals of the state policy and the RF Ministry of Energy in particular. Domestic gas turbines will help the Russian market feel more confident. We believe that this amount of capacity will help the Russian market to offset the impact of Western sanctions.
Russia's current task is to move away from dependence on imports and ensure technological sovereignty of the energy industry, the press service of the Energy Ministry told Izvestia.
"Already today we see a forecasted capacity deficit in some parts of the country's energy system, which should be eliminated both by new construction and modernization of existing generating capacities. Thus, we have determined the need for generating capacities and parameters of generating equipment, which, of course, should be domestic," the ministry said.
The Ministry of Energy together with the Ministry of Industry and Trade and Russian machine builders have already formed a sectoral order for domestic equipment. At the same time, the development of competencies for service and repair of power equipment continues. The work on ensuring technological sovereignty in the power engineering industry will be continued within the framework of the national project "New Nuclear and Power Technologies", which will be launched next year, the ministry said.
As for the measures of state support for domestic machine-building enterprises, they exist and are already widely implemented by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Energy added.
"Izvestia" sent a request to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, but at the time of publication no response had been received.
Energy deficit
Recently, energy deficit has been observed in a number of Russian regions, Tamara Safonova, associate professor at the Institute of Economics, Mathematics and Information Technologies of the Presidential Academy, added.
- "Given the growth of energy consumption, there is a need to increase generation capacity," the expert told Izvestia. - Construction of gas turbines and commissioning of new capacities will allow increasing industrial potential, gas production and consumption, as well as electricity generation.
Starting from 2022, the Russian energy industry has faced problems with service maintenance of foreign equipment, including gas turbine, transformer, and control equipment, as well as a shortage of foreign-made components. However, this had a stimulating effect on the development of domestic technologies and production facilities, which resulted in irreparable losses for Western companies in terms of access to the Russian market.
According to Fedor Opadchey, head of System Operator, the growth of energy consumption in Russia is about 3.4%. According to the Ministry of Energy, this indicator will grow by 3-3.5% by the end of the year. On November 18, the government commission for the development of the electric power industry approved a ban on cryptocurrency mining in some regions of the Russian Federation from December 2024. From December 1, 2024 to March 15, 2025, restrictions will be introduced in parts of cities and districts of the Irkutsk region, Buryatia and the Trans-Baikal Territory. After that, it will be extended to peak load periods in these regions: from November 15 to March 15 annually until 2031. The ban will also be introduced in Karachay-Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkar Republic, North Ossetia-Alania, Ingushetia, Chechnya, Dagestan, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions, DNR and LNR.
Replacement plans
Russia plans to master mass production of gas turbines in the near future. For example, the Udarnaya TPP has already been launched for 110 MW. The Ministry of Energy also expects to launch production for 175 MW, 170 MW and 65 MW.
"We should have about 50-60 domestically produced gas turbines with a total capacity of 7 GW commissioned on the horizon of the SIPR (schemes and programs for the development of Russia's electric power systems for 2024-2029). In the remaining planning horizon of the general scheme (the general scheme for the location of electric power facilities until 2042), this volume, taking into account 7 GW, may amount to 60 to 80 GW in total. This is the demand that is needed now," Evgeny Grabchak said at a round table of the Committee on Energy devoted to the issues of power engineering and achieving technological leadership.
At the same time, Russia plans to create a service for the main nomenclature for servicing foreign gas turbines within three to four years. The Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Industry and Trade are working on the current operation - primarily with the service of foreign-made gas turbines.
Main difficulties
Russia has not mastered sufficiently the technologies of long-distance DC transmission and still has a strong dependence on transformer equipment. In addition, there is a problem of breach of contractual terms in the supply of main and auxiliary equipment for generation, which leads to the failure to meet the deadlines for the realization of facilities.
In addition, there was a sharp increase in the cost of purchasing new equipment and service maintenance, by more than 70%. In particular, the cost of service and maintenance equipment for steam power plants increased on average by 45%, boiler equipment - by 56%, foreign-made combined cycle and gas turbine equipment, where service is provided by Russian companies - by 118%.
Power equipment manufacturers point to a significant increase in the cost of components and materials. The price of castings has increased 2.5-3 times, auxiliary boiler equipment - twice, pipe and rolled metal products - up to two times. As a result, the largest generating companies applied for refusal to implement 17 TPP modernization projects with an aggregate installed capacity of over 2 GW, including two modernization projects using head samples of innovative gas turbines for 65 MW.
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