Nuclear power plant to save over 5bn m3 of natural gas for Belarus

The implementation of the project to build a nuclear power plant of its own will allow Belarus to substitute over 5 billion m3 of imported natural gas, BelTA learned from Belarusian First Deputy Energy Minister Leonid Shenets during the 4th Belarusian-German energy forum on 25 November.

According to Leonid Shenets, the implementation of the current energy policy is expected to reduce natural gas consumption from 22 billion m3 in 2015 to 16.5 billion m3 in 2020 primarily due to the energy industry nearly halving natural gas consumption. Meanwhile, natural gas consumption by Belarusian households is expected to stay the same. Other kinds of consumers may increase natural gas consumption a little bit.

Once the nuclear power plant is operational in its basic mode, the Belarusian power grid will offer 17 billion kWh of electricity to consumers per annum. As from 2019 Belarus will no longer import electricity, noted the official. Apart from that, the launch of the Belarusian nuclear power plant will allow reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 7-10 million tonnes per annum.

The Belarusian nuclear power plant is a project to build an AES-2006 type nuclear power plant 18km away from Ostrovets, Grodno Oblast. The Belarusian nuclear power plant will have two power-generating units with the total output capacity of up to 2,400MW (2x1,200MW). In line with the general contract for building the nuclear power plant the first power-generating unit is scheduled for commissioning in 2018, with the second one to go online in 2020.