Belarusian nuclear power plant’s link to national power grid ready

The construction of the system to connect the Belarusian nuclear power plant with the national power grid has been completed, BelTA learned from Belarusian Energy Minister Viktor Karankevich.

“A large-scale project to feed electricity from the Belarusian nuclear power plant to the power grid has been completed. Its significance is unparalleled in Belarus,” said the energy minister.

Over 1,000km of 330kV overhead power lines has been built and some 700km of existing 110-330kV power lines has been reconstructed. Four major power substations had to be reconstructed and the new substation Postavy has been built.

In order to further integrate the Belarusian nuclear power plant into the power grid the national electric company Belenergo continues building electric boilers and energy sources, which will be used for backup and for alleviating the load during peak consumption. Their capacity stands at 916MW and about 800MW respectively. “These measures are needed to keep the national power grid operating smoothly after the Belarusian nuclear power plant is commissioned,” stressed Viktor Karankevich.

BelTA reported earlier that the power output system was built in line with the $340.86 million contract signed by the Grodno Oblast electrical company Grodnoenergo and North China Power Engineering Company (NCPE). A loan from the Export-Import Bank of China is supposed to cover 95% of the cost while Grodnoenergo provides the rest.

The Belarusian nuclear power plant is being built near Ostrovets, Grodno Oblast using a Russian design featuring two VVER-1200 reactors with the total output capacity of 2,400MW. The first power-generating unit is scheduled for commissioning in 2019, with the second one to go online in 2020.