Construction of peaking plants begins at Minsk cogeneration plant No.5

MINSK, 25 November (BelTA) – The construction of peaking and load-following power plants powered by Siemens gas turbine power units has begun at cogeneration plant No.5 in Minsk, the press service of the national energy company Belenergo told BelTA.

New peaking and load-following power plants are being built as part of the integration of the Belarusian nuclear power plant into the country's power grid. The new sources of energy will have to smooth out electric consumption spikes and will go online fast to ensure the uninterrupted supply of electricity to consumers if baseload power plants go offline.

The backup sources of energy rely on quick-acting gas-turbine power units that can reach their designed output capacity within 15 minutes from a cold start.

The construction of the first set of peaking and load-following power plants has begun. A total of six gas-turbine power units with the total output capacity of 300MW will be built.