Sredneuralskaya GRES

Sredneuralskaya GRES (SUGRES) is a thermal gas-fired power plant with total installed capacity of 1,578.5 MW. The installed thermal capacity of the power plant is 1,117 Gcal/h. Sredneuralskaya GRES uses natural gas as a main fuel. The power plant is located at 16 km from the city of Yekaterinburg.

Sredneuralskaya GRES consists of several parts: Stage 1: five medium pressure boiler and three turbines rated at 16, 46 and 16 MW; Stage 2: three high pressure boilers and three turbines rated at 100, 100 and 38 MW; Stage 3: two-boiler single-turbine units of supercritical parameters rated at 310 and 300 MW; Stage 4: one two-boiler single-turbine unit of supercritical parameters rated at 300 MW; CCGT unit of 419 MW. The power plant also has a gas turbine expansion station of 11.5 MW. Sredneuralskaya GRES is one of the largest heat suppliers in the Sverdlovsk power system. About 30% of heat and hot water consumed by Yekaterinburg and approx. 100% of the needs of the nearby towns such as Verkhnyaya Pyshma and Sredneuralsk are covered by the power plant. The power output share of Sredneuralskaya GRES in the power system of Sverdlovsk region is about 10%.

History of construction:

January 6, 1936, the first turbo-generator was commissioned; the second TG was put in operation in 1937, and 1939 was the year when the third TG was commissioned. April 1, 1945, Sredneuralskaya GRES was awarded the Order of Lenin. April 17, 1945, the power plant team received the Red Banner of the State Defence Committee for in-perpetuity custody. By 1949, construction of the 234 MW first stage of the power plant was completed: 8 boilers and 5 turbines. In 1950-1953, SUGRES for the first time in Russia carried out comprehensive automation of thermal processes. In 1954, a new kind of fuel - Ekibastuz coal - was introduced. In 1960s, a powerful district heating system was commissioned. It made possible to output up to 1,150 Gcal/h of heat energy and 2,000 tons of hot water per hour. In addition, a unique 26 km long heat pipeline “Sredneuralsk-Sverdlovsk” was constructed. The heating pipeline has greatly increased the hot water supply reliability for the inhabitants of Sverdlovsk, Vekhnyaya Pyshma, improved the environmental situation in Sverdlovsk by eliminating several hundreds of small boiler rooms fired by solid fuels. In 1982, the first stage of the power plant was transferred from coal to natural gas, and fuel oil was used as a backup fuel.

In 1985, for the needs of the heat grid, a water treatment facility with capacity of 6,000 t/h fed up by source water from Volchikhinskoe water reservoir, was put in operation at SUGRES. Such filtering facilities were not previously applied in power sector. Under the Decree of the Supreme Council of the USSR dated April 29, 1986, for achievement of high technical and economic performance of power equipment, SUGRES was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour. Moreover, Sredneuralskaya GRES became a winner of Soviet labour competitions more than once. It total, SUGRES keeps 10 relic banners presented to the team for valorous labour. In 2008, construction of a combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) started. July 25, 2011, the new CCGT-410 was put in operation. Today, the installed capacity of SUGRES CCGT equals to 419 MW.

Sredneuralskaya GRES today:

Today you can study history of the country and Ural power sector development based on the equipment installed at Sredneuralskaya GRES: from turbines of 1930s, 300 MW power units up to a modern CCGT-410 commissioned by Enel in 2011.

From the very moment of CCGT commissioning, the power plant specialists have managed to increase its operational performance. Thus, compared to 2011, the specific fuel rate decreased by 10%, the net electricity output increased by 4%. According to the results of certification tests, the CCGT’s installed capacity increased by 2% and equals to 419 MW. Compared to 2012, the heat output grew up by 80%.

In 2011, the first certification audit was carried out at Sredneuralskaya GRES power plant and it showed conformity of the integrated management system to the requirements of international standards OHSAS 18001:2007 "Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems" and ISO 14001:2004 "Environmental Management System". Since 2011, the external audits were regularly carried out at the power plant and confirmed efficiency of internal processes management.

In 2013, a new water decontamination plant was put in operation at SUGRES. It allows for replacing hazardous liquid chlorine and withdrawing it from the technological cycle. Dose of the water-decontaminating agent used in the new equipment is significantly lower compared to traditional chlorination. In addition, at the same time, it is more effective in fight against harmful microorganisms. This contributes to the reduction of toxic chloroform in the treated drinking water more than 10 times, which greatly improves consumer water quality and makes it safer for the people.

Starting from 2013, upon the power plant’s initiative the Isetskoye water reservoir has been populated with over 286 thnd fish of valuable species. While building the cooling water intake for the CCGT, Sredneuralskaya GRES installed a fish protection system, designed to mitigate the impact of the power plant’s production cycle on the fish fauna of Iset water reservoir by preventing ingress of bio-resources into the SUGRES water intake. As of today, all SGRES water intake plants are equipped with fish protection systems.

Over 80 years of the operation, Sredneuralskaya GRES produced more than 380 bln kWh of electricity and over 200 mln Gcal of heat.

On May 4, 2018, Sredneuralskaya GRES produced 400 billion kilowatt-hours of power starting from the first turbine start-up.

In 2015, the Company announced the completion of the large-scale project of technical refurbishment and modernization of district heating system of Sredneuralskaya GRES. The Company allocated about 1.7 bln rub for the project, allowing further possibility to operate more reliable equipment to ensure heat supply for the consumers. These activities have improved reliability and efficiency of the power plant equipment in autumn-winter period, ensuring stable heat supply for the consumers, as well as it has improved the working conditions of the power plant employees.

In autumn 2017, the audit results confirmed the efficiency and controllability of processes of the integrated management system of occupational health (OHSAS 18001:2007), safety, environment (ISO 14001:2004) and quality (ISO 9001:2008). Quality Management System was certified in 2017 for the first time.

In September 2018, together with implementation of new versions of standards ISO 14001:2015 (environment) and ISO 9001:2015 (quality), the transition of the IMS to the risk-based approach was confirmed.

In 2018, Sredneuralskaya GRES completed installation of noise absorbing equipment. At the end of 2017, Unit 10 was equipped with 10 noise silencers. In 2018, Units 9 and 11 of Sredneuralskaya GRES were equipped with 12 noise silencers which help to minimize the noise emission of the high pressure steam current. These devices are designed to lower the noise pressure level when power units emit steam into the atmosphere during start-up or shut-downs.

Power plant management:

Dmitry Geld, Director of Sredneuralskaya GRES branch of PJSC EL5-Energo.

Andrey Mironenko, Chief Engineer - Deputy Director of Production of Sredneuralskaya GRES branch of PJSC EL5-Energo.