The Second Stage of Blagoveshchenskaya CHP: Road to the Future

The MAIN JOURNAL for POWER GRID SPECIALISTS in RUSSIA

30

THE SECOND STAGE OF 
BLAGOVESHCHENSKAYA CHP:
ROAD TO THE FUTURE

CHP is located near to con-

struction cranes and growing high-
rise buildings. It provides heat and 
the necessary resources for 81% 
of the population and industrial 
enterprises in Blagoveshchensk 
with a population of 224 thousand 
people. But the city requires 
new energy in order to develop 
itself. It is necessary to build
a new CHP.

Impulse for the 

С

onstruction

De

fi

 cit of the heat energy in Bla-

goveshchensk has been started 
since early 2005. Due to the lack of 
capacity, CHP of Bla go veshchensk 
has stopped to connect new con-
sumers. Generally, it con 

cerned 

commercial structures. Developers,

Besides the fact that power supply provides comfort for the population, it also affects 

the socio-economic development because the life of any production or residential 

facility is impossible without heat and electricity. The project of construction of the 

second stage of Blagoveshchenskaya combined heat and power (CHP) gave new 

capacity for the capital of the Amur River region in order to make heat supply more 

reliable and allow to connect new consumers.

New Energy

of the Far East

31

entrepreneurs and ordinary citi-
zens, who decided to build 
a house in the city, appeal to CHP 
of Blagoveshchensk every week.

The second stage of CHP of 

Blagoveshchensk must solve 
those problems.  In fact, this is 
the expansion of the existing CHP 
and installation of the modern 
equipment.

“In order to avoid emergencies 

by reason of the lack of a heat 
capacity reserve, we were re-
fusing to connect new consumers 
to the central heating during the 
last years. Constructing hospitals, 
schools, houses for orphans and 
migrants connected to the power 
system without any problem as 
priority facilities, but we had to 
refuse the owners of some com-
mercial or business centers, cot-
tages so that we will use available 
capacity”, JSC “Far-eastern ge-
nerating company” General Direc-
tor Mikhail Shukaylov stated.

Undoubtedly, start of the 

second stage of CHP has given 
the impulse for the development of 
the construction industry. There is 
a prediction that the construction 
area in Blagoveshchensk will 
have been risen by more than two 
million square meters by 2019. 
There are such large investment 
projects among those construction 
area as the construction of two 
entertainment complex for tourists 
“Golden Mile” and “Little Venice”, 
which will consume the heat from 
CHP of Blagoveshchensk.

Almost 14 thousand standard 

apartments are expected to get 
heat from the new capacity this 
year. It is one and a half time more 
than it was built last year. Experts 
have considered that due to new 
capacities, Blagoveshchensk can 
grow without problems.

Assistance for 

Power Engineers

The power engineers, who 

work for CHP, waited for the se-
cond stage of the CHP. One of the 
unique features of Blago vesh chen-
skaya CHP was the fact that it was 
working for the last seven years 
using all equipment of that CHP

and having as reserve only two 
hot water boilers. CHP was work-
ing in this mode during all four cold 
months of those years. Any equip-
ment failure could create dif

fi

 cul-

ties for the city. Installed capacity 
was 280 MW and installed heat ca-
pacity was 817 Gcal/h. Under the 
conditions of high requirements to 
the hardware, staff ’s responsibi-
lity increases. There was no right 
to make a mistake, because CHP 

of Bla goveshchensk provides al-
most three-quarters of heat sup-
ply for the city. That is why winter 
had been the most tough working 
time for the power engineers from 
Blagoveshchensk before the start 
of the new equipment operation of 
the second stage of CHP. Today 
power engineers say with con

fi

 -

dence that the issue of risks of 
CHP uninterrupted operation has 
been solved.

2nd stage of BLAGOVESHCHENSKAYA CHP

• 

Objectives:

• 

the elimination of the de

fi

 cit and cover of the future require-

ments for the heat capacity in Blagoveshchensk,

• 

the replacement of inef

fi

 cient municipal boilers and the 

connection of the new residential areas to the district
heating of Blagoveshchensk

• 

Electrical capacity:  

120 MW

 (2nd stage)

• 

Heat capacity:

188 Gcal/h

 (2nd stage)

• 

Fuel: 

coal from “Erkovetsky” 

fi

 eld

• 

Р

opulation of the

Amur River region:

800 thousand people

• 

Р

opulation

of Blagoveshchensk:

220 thousand people

Construction of new boiler unit of the 
power plant second stage

Fa

c

t s

h

e

e

t

32

Way from

the Project to 

the Results

In fact, the second stage of 

CHP of Blagoveshchensk is the 
expansion of capacity of the 
existing CHP. CJSC “COTES” 
(from Novosibirsk) and CJSC 
“Lonas Tekhnologia” became 
the general designers of the 
project, JSC “Power machines” 
was the general contractor. JSC 
“Blagoveshchenskaya CHP” 
(subsidiary of PJSC “RusHydro” 
managed by PJSC “RAO Energy 
Systems of the East”) became 
customer and developer.

Project of the construction of 

the CHP second stage included in-
stallation of the 

fi

 fth boiler and the 

fourth turbine set, construction of 
the fourth cooling tower, instal lation 
of additional transformers and ex-
pansion of outdoor switchgear, 
modernization of the fuel-handling 
system with expansion for the 
boiler number 5 and con struction 
about 7 km of railway lines.

The project in Blagovesh-

chensk has a particular feature in 

comparison with constructions in 
Sakhalin, Yakutia the Khabarovsk 
Territory. The construction in 
Blagoveshchensk took place on 
the area of the operating power 
plant. The new equipment was 
embedded in the existing building 
and in the important industrial pro-
cess without stopping. By reason 
of the project of the CHP 

fi

 rst stage 

included the construction of the 
main building for the expansion of 
capacity in the future, the decision 
was made to use the same kind 
of equipment as already working 
one.

The new unit of CHP is fully 

automated. There are no switch 
buttons anymore. A monitor is 
located in front of operating staff. 
They can get any circuit as well as 
switch on and switch off different 
nodes by means of a computer 
mouse. All processes on the new 
equipment of the power plant are 
ful

fi

 lled by means of automatic 

process control system.

“To the due date, we have 

received an updated station with 
a trained professional staff, and 
the city of Blagoveshchensk has 
gotten heat from the new unit of 
power station”, CEO of PJSC “RAO

Energy Systems of the East” 
Sergey Tolstoguzov said.

At the same time with con-

struc tion of Blagoveshcensk CHP,
there was a serious staff’s prepa-
ration in order to work with a new 
equipment. The staff had to get 
special knowledge  in order to 
understand the particular features 
of the new software and hardware 
complex of the main control 
board. Experts from manufacturer 
of the boiler and the turbine set 
came and made the explanations 
about pecu 

liar properties of the 

equipment. Power engineers par-
ti cipated in the starting-up and 
adjustment of the equipment ac-
tively during educational pro-
cess. Today they control ope-
rating modes of the equipment 
successfully. 70 new employees 
participate in the operation of the 
new electrical power unit.

After the commissioning of 

the second stage of Blago vesh-
chen skaya CHP, the power plant 
has increased heat capacity by 
a quarter and electric capacity 
almost in one and a half time. This 
is a very serious volume. More 
precisely, installed capacity of 
CHP has increased by 120 MW 
and has become 400 MW. At 
the same time heat capacity has 
increased by 188 Gcal/h and has 
become 1005 Gcal/h.

Annual output of electric ener-

gy will grow by 464 million kW•h 
and reach a value of 1.468 million 
kW•h. Annual output of heat 
energy will increase by 730 Gcal 
and reach a value of 2854 Gcal.

Start of the second stage 

of CHP has already given the 

fi

 rst results. It has provided the 

opportunity to connect new 
consumers to the central heating. 
There is a plan to connect 
13 facilities (5 apartment houses 
and 4 administrative buildings) 
with heat load of 5,351 Gcal/h 
during 2016. The preliminary 
permit has given for connection 
of housing estate “Ignatievskaya 
usadba”, “Peter” district, twelve 
residential complexes and one 
sport complex, as well as the 
greenhouses with an area of 
6 hectares. 

The turbine set number 4 is ready to produce 

electrical energy for Blagoveshchensk city