The names of many power generating stations are preceded by the abbreviation GRES. The vast majority believes that an ordinary hydroelectric power plant is hiding under it, however, this opinion is erroneous. According to encyclopedias, the GRES is a state regional power plant and has nothing to do with water.
Such power plants operate on any fuel and produce only electricity. The first Russian regional power plant was built in 1914, near Moscow. It was built according to the project of engineer Klasson, worked on local peat and provided 15-megawatt power. Typical GRES, developed in the USSR, had a much more impressive performance, which reached 2400 megawatts. Over the years, the abbreviation has almost lost its original meaning. Now this term is used to refer to a very powerful condensing power plant included in the common power grid. One of these stations isTroitskaya GRES.
This power plant, owned by OGK-2, is considered one of the largest power generating companies in the South Urals. It gained such key importance due to its location. Built in the Chelyabinsk region, near the city of Troitsk, the state district power station turned out to be the closest neighbor of the Magnitogorsk industrial hub. This neighborhood has led to the fact that the demand for electricity generated by the station is constantly increasing.
Troitskaya GRES operates on coal, which is considered the main fuel of the station. Most of the fuel is hard coal mined in the Ekibastuz deposit. Fuel oil is used as a secondary fuel at the power plant. The base power of the station is 2059 megawatts, and only about seven percent of this energy is used for its needs. The Troitskaya GRES consists of eight power units, however, its most outstanding part is considered to be the pipe, recognized as the highest on earth. Another "attraction" was the Russian-Kazakh border, which runs right through the territory of the station. The power plant itself is still in Russia, while its ash dumps are already located in Kazakhstan.
Troitskaya GRES was built over several decades. The initial version of the station, built in the 1960s, produced 255 megawatts of electricity. At the same time, in the sixties, the second stage was also built, which provided 834 megawatts of power. The construction of the third stage took place in the seventies. After this upgrade, the amount of electricity generated by the GRES increasedat 970 megawatts. Like this
Station supports performance even now. Another pulverized-coal power unit will be added to the power plant's assets in 2014, while the efficiency of the power plant will increase by 600 megawatts.
Like other state district power plants in Russia, the Troitskaya power plant cares about the cleanliness of the environment. For example, the ash produced by the plant is practically free of heavy metals. In addition, the management of the Troitskaya GRES adopted an environmental program, thanks to which modern dust and gas cleaners have already been installed at two power units of the station, which have significantly reduced the level of harmful emissions.
