Project in development to integrate Belarusian nuclear station into national power grid

The energy industry institute BelTEI is working on the project to integrate the Belarusian nuclear power plant into the national power grid, said Mikhail Milashenko, Head of the Energy Effectiveness Office of the Belarusian Energy Ministry, during the online conference hosted by the BelTA website on 4 December.

“The work involves several components, including the commissioning of electric boilers at existing cogeneration plants, the construction of gas turbines for peak hours,” he specified. Time-differentiated electricity rates are in development, including for households, for the sake of encouraging electricity consumption in night time and reducing electricity consumption in peak hours. Some technologies that use gas-powered heating are being converted to electrical heaters. Homes that use electricity for heating and hot water supply are being built. “It will rule out the construction of boiler houses for new homes as well as centralized and individual heating stations,” explained Mikhail Milashenko. Efforts are also put into the development of electrical transport. The possibility of using electrical lighting along motorways between oblasts is under consideration. Belarusian railroads are being electrified with a view to optimizing the daily electricity consumption schedule.

A national energy security concept has been developed and agreed with all the agencies concerned. As far as the operation of the power grid goes, the concept provides for dividing electricity generation, transportation, and sales of energy resources. In the end this conceptual document will determine how and to what agency the Belarusian nuclear power plant will answer, noted Mikhail Milashenko.

The Belarusian nuclear power plant is a project to build an AES-2006 type nuclear power plant 18km away from Ostrovets, Grodno Oblast. The power plant will have two power-generating units with the total output capacity of up to 2,400MW (2x1,200MW). The Russian merged company OAO NIAEP – ZAO ASE is the general designer and the general contractor of the project. 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.