Reftinskaya GRES, accident: who is to blame?

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:46

The need to create state district power plants (GRES for short) arose a long time ago. A huge part of residential and industrial premises needs electricity every day. It is GRES that can almost completely satisfy this need. But sometimes emergencies happen at power plants. There are many reasons, but the main one is equipment wear. The Reftinskaya GRES was no exception, the accident at which brought a lot of problems.

About the Reftinskaya Power Plant

Reftinsk State District Power Plant is the largest thermal power plant in the entire Russian Federation. It is located in the Sverdlovsk region, 2.5 km from the village of Reftinsky.

The capacity of the power plant is 3800 MW. The main type of fuel is Ekibastuz hard coal with a calorific value of 16.3 MJ/kg. Asfuel oil favors fuel oil.

GRES was created to supply electricity to industrial areas of the Sverdlovsk, Tyumen, Perm and Chelyabinsk regions. The construction of the power plant began in 1963, the first power unit was launched in 1970, and the last in 1980.

History of the power plant

Back in 1963, the future creators of the Reftinskaya state district power plant landed near the city of Asbest. They were driven into such a jungle by the desire to find a site ideally suited for the construction of a power plant. And they got what they wanted: in the same year, the first peg was driven into the ground, marking the beginning of construction.

The Sverdlovsk Regional Committee was zealously following the construction of the power plant. World experience, the best technical solutions of that time - everything possible was invested in the design of the building itself. March 1967 was marked by the laying of the first cubic meter of concrete in the foundation of the future power plant.

From 1970 to 1980, one after another, after a thorough check, the power units were launched. It was then that it became clear to the whole country that this state-owned district power plant was the most impressive, because its capacity reached a record high of 3800 MW. With such indicators, the power plant satisfies the needs of the entire Ural region.

Equipment of Reftinskaya GRES

The power plant enjoys the followingsystems:

1. Fuel supply. It is carried out by delivering coal by rail. Fuel is supplied to the station itself using a bulldozer. Separate containers have been allocated for the storage of fuel oil directly at the warehouse of the State District Power Plant.
2. Water supply. On the territory of the power plant there is a pond designed to cool the systems. In addition, deep water intake is used.
3. Hydroash removal. Ash and slag are removed through specially designated pipes to waste disposal sites.
4. Water treatment. For this purpose, the station has a desalination plant.
5. Control and management system. It is carried out at the expense of boards with devices for regulating the operation of equipment. There is one shield for every two blocks.
6. Gas cleaning system. To achieve gas purity, electrostatic precipitators are used, the list of which is publicly available.

What did the workers of the power plant remember in 2006?

On the eve of 2007, no one could predict that the Reftinskaya GRES (the accident shocked everyone) would suddenly fail. It was the end of December, the pre-New Year atmosphere was already in the air, and suddenly there was an emergency. First, the tenth power unit collapsed, besides, there was a fire, the roof began to collapse. The seventh and eighth blocks followed. And the ninth power unit was generally under repair.

Of course, these incidents significantly reduced the efficiency of the power plant. And the entire Sverdlovsk energy system turned out to be under serious suspicion of unreliability.

PoThe results obtained by the departmental commission determined the damage suffered by the power plant, and it amounted to more than 237 million rubles. But no one had yet guessed that the accident at the Reftinskaya GRES in 2006 was far from the only and not the last case.

August 2016: what did he bring?

Man gets used to everything. That is, even when the power supply suddenly turned off in the settlements closest to the station, people reacted more grumpily than frightened: “Another accident at the Reftinskaya GRES - heads will roll …”. The systems of the Tyumen and Sverdlovsk regions may well provide for their regions on their own, which they did by simply disconnecting from the main energy system.

With huge amounts of energy being generated, it's no wonder there is a surplus. People might not even notice the emergency of the situation. That is why only an ignorant person could be surprised at what was happening, saying something like: “Horror! Reftinskaya GRES, the accident is nonsense, it can’t be!”.

Due to the speed of the equipment protection system, everything was disabled. This practically did not affect the performance of the power plant systems. There were no casu alties either.

How did the accident affect the combat readiness of local military units?

According to reliable sources, even the accident at the Reftinskaya GRES on August 22, 2016 could not somehow upset the work of military units. Power outages were present, but at the first sign of a possible disconnection fromof the main power supply system, all objects of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation were connected to stand-by autonomous sources.

This situation was not an unsolvable problem. Despite interruptions (which, by the way, also occurred in the territories of the Republic of Altai, Khakassia, Buryatia, etc.), the combat readiness of military units remained unchanged.

Which companies are still affected?

Sibur still suffered some losses. The Tomskneftekhim company, which is part of it, was forced to suspend production; the reason for this was the frequency deviation during the accident at the Reftinskaya GRES. In other words, there was a voltage drop. Thanks to the prompt response of the protective systems, all equipment was temporarily disabled and therefore remained intact.

Even in such an emergency situation, the employees of Tomskneftekhim did not lose their heads and did not start to panic. Immediately, a check was made for the presence of a threat to the environment and to humans. These threats were absent, and after a short time the company resumed production.

Power restored

As soon as the system failure occurred, Reftinskaya GRES immediately began to try to resume the supply of electricity to residential consumers. Lukoil enterprises located in the Urals; "Tomskneftekhim"; many objects in the Omsk and Kemerovo regions - all of them were left without a power source. Only a few hours later, it was possible to establish electricity for all consumers.

In addition, at about eight o'clock in the evening at Reftinskaya GRES, work began on the launch of power units and the adjustment of systems. That is, from the moment of the accident to almost complete recovery, only a couple of hours passed. You can admire the efficiency of the workers of the power plant!

Who else could be without food?

According to the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation, some high-voltage lines were switched off. Among them are "Tyumen-Nelym", "Krotovo-Tatarka" and others. Moreover, the second line from those listed was automatically restarted unsuccessfully.

There are a lot of very important strategic objects on the territory of Siberia. The same military units, for example. Leaving them and their production without electricity means exposing the country to a threat both in terms of producing the necessary products and in terms of combat capability.

Due to a short circuit, the electrical networks (an accident, Reftinskaya GRES could not prevent it) could not come into working condition. Although most of the high-voltage lines have been restored, there are some that have failed.

Is there a risk of re-ignition?

Undoubtedly, this question is of interest to many, especially the employees of the state regional power plant in the Sverdlovsk region. But when analyzing already observed fires and roof collapses, the following conclusion can be drawn: the probability of a repeated accident is very high. The equipment at the station has not changed for a long time. Yes, in Soviet times these were the best developments, but since then a lot has gone to replacetechnologies of the last century came more modern. It's not just about the ideas of new equipment. If the budget does not allow timely diagnosis and repair of machines and installations, as well as the replacement of the same wiring, then as a result, production may decline.

It should be taken into account that the power units are already 30-40 years old. They have not been replaced or even overhauled. It is these factors that can easily prove the need to maintain security systems in absolute order. That is, if not modernization, then at least a quick response to an emergency. After all, even with the next collapse of the roof, there will still be several power units with which it will be possible to generate electricity.

Reftinskaya GRES, the accident at which occurred in 2016, has not yet really recovered from the last emergency in 2006. Then the consequences were much worse. Yes, and more expensive - almost two billion rubles cost the restoration of the station.

The next such fire could turn off the power plant for a long time, or even forever.

If we take into account that this power plant, even in this state, can still provide more than a few areas, it becomes clear how justified the investment in the modernization of the plant. It is necessary to do everything possible so that the motto of this organization is the phrase: "Reftinskaya GRES - an accident is excluded!". After all, if there is no energy supply, then there will be a colossal failure throughout the country: in production, in science, and in other areas.