At 18:30 President of Russia Vladimir Putin gave the start to the program of bringing up Rostov-4 to design power.
The head of state, who visited Rostov-on-Don with a working visit, took part in a video conference on the start-up of the nuclear power unit. He was reported on by Director General of ROSATOM Alexey Likhachev and Rostov Plant Manager Andrey Salnikov and greeted the nuclear workers with the labor victory. Earlier on the same day the turbine generator of Unit 4 was synchronized with the grid. The generated electricity started flowing into the unified power grid of the country.
In particular, the President noted that in 2017 nuclear power reached a record of 200 billion kWh of electricity. “I would like to thank you for this work. On the whole, nuclear power makes 19% of electricity in the total mix, but we will develop this sector further, which is highly technological and efficient,” he said.
“Certainly, it is very important that our competence is recognized all over the world; we continue construction both in the country and abroad. We build corresponding nuclear facilities in 12 world countries and will continue this work further,” Putin said.
According to the head of state, the commissioning of Rostov-4 will provide for the current and future needs in electricity not only of Rostov but of entire South Russia.
Alexey Likhachev said: “Volgodonsk is a unique university of contemporary builders. Here, the nuclear competences have been restored. We have shifted from the “heroic deed mode” of the beginning of the 2000s to the planned “conveyor built” of nuclear power plants. Here at Rostov land, a whole set of records have been set. The main circulation pipeline was welded in 96 days while the Soviet record was 150 days. The unit commissioning time from the first concrete to connection to the grid was reduced by 2-2,5 times. And the main thing, over 10 years of ROSATOM existence, we have learned to build right on time and price.”
Speaking on the importance of this event, Director General of Rosenergoatom Andrey Petrov said: “The commissioning of Unit 4 makes Rostov NPP the largest power facility in the south of the country. More than 50% of electricity produced in Rostov Region will be nuclear. In parallel with Unit 4, the commissioning is under way at Leningrad-1. The first power of the Leningrad unit is expected in early spring this year.”
In turn, President of Group of Companies ASE Valery Limarenko said: “We actively implement the experience in series build of NPPs gained at Rostov NPP at all our facilities, both Russian and foreign. These are units of Belarus NPP and the plants in Bangladesh, Hungary and Turkey. The lifecycle management system for complex engineering facilities based on Multi-D technology allows us to build and commission nuclear power units on due dates, at the fixed price and observing all international safety standards.”
To remind, Rostov NPP is the only nuclear power plant in contemporary Russia which started up three power units on one site over 7 years (in 2010 – Unit 2, in 2015 – Unit 3, in 2017 – Unit 4) and the first plant in the modern Russian history which witnessed resurrection of the so-called “straight-line construction” that supports both maximum effective use of material and monetary resources and observance of the major construction term. Today, Rostov NPP is one of the largest enterprises of Rostov Region and southern Russia’s energy sector. Unit 4 will sustainably supply power to the entire south region of Russia. At this, Rostov Region will be one of the ten Russian regions which are leaders in electricity generation. Now, the plant produces over 40% electricity in the region. Electricity from the plant’s units is supplied to Volgograd Region, Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories and in the city of Volgodonsk, which means the energy security of the entire energy system of the country’s South. New Unit 4 commissioning will bring the share of electricity production of the plant in the region up to about 54%.
Operating Unit 4 can bring about RUB 1 billion a year to the budgets of all levels additionally and for the first year after commercial commissioning the additional payments will be RUB 1.7 billion only at the expense of the property tax.