Investment activity

Unipro PJSC investment activities are implemented based on economic feasibility of the projects, maintaining the Company’s competitiveness and equipment operational reliability.

Goals of the investment activity:

1. Provision for equipment compliance with the requirements of the regulatory documentation in terms of industrial safety, improvement of the occupational safety and industrial safety level.
2. Improvement of economic efficiency of equipment operation (reduction of specific fuel equivalent consumption, reduction of auxiliary electric power and capacity consumption by the plants, reduction of water charges, optimization of repair and maintenance costs, reduction of transmission heat losses).
3. Reduction of losses on the capacity market resulting from unscheduled non-availability of power units.
4. Reduction of losses on the day-ahead market resulting from utilization of power units in the periods when the day-ahead price does not cover the fuel costs.
5. Provision for power units’ participation in the ancillary services market.

Main areas of the investment activity:

• investments in occupational health, industrial safety and information security systems to meet the requirements of the law and improve the labour conditions in terms of safety;
• investments in existing equipment:
  • replacement of life-expired equipment items;
  • replacement of equipment items with improved ones in order to enhance operational efficiency;
• construction of boiler houses making it possible to reduce the number of generating equipment items required to sustain the heat load in the period of low day-ahead prices;
• modernization of automatic control systems and information systems making it possible to participate in the ancillary services market;
• equipment modernization in the course of competitive selections of modernization projects.

The Station is designed to receive coal from Berezovsky Open-Pit via the main conveyors and distribute it to the coal depot or to the power units of the power plant

The currently functioning temporary fuel supply scheme has open areas, and the most critical elements operate without a backup and are technically obsolete. In this regard, there is a threat of disrupting the shipment of coal and, as a result, stopping the operation of the entire plant.

Commissioning of the Fuel Receiving Station (FRS) will allow:

• providing the necessary technological backup of each element of the fuel supply system;
• round-the-clock acceptance of fuel with its simultaneous shipment both to the operating units and to the coal storage facility;
• eliminating open areas of the system and reducing the amount of fuel loss with mechanical entrainment;
• ensuring a high level of automation of the fuel supply and distribution, as well as compliance with the current fire safety and labour safety standards

The Fuel Receiving Station has been under construction since 16 July 2012. Currently 72% of the total work scope has been completed. The construction of the facility is expected to be completed 20 months after approval of the type of fire-retardant coating for the steel structures of the building and approval of key project parameters.

In 2020, no work under the FRS construction project was carried out due to the postponement of the decision to approve the updated key parameters of the project to 2021.

Due to the fire on 01 February 2016, an emergency stop of the plant boiler unit No. 3 occurred. This caused serious damage to the supporting iron of the main building frame and to the boiler. Power Unit No.3 was shut down for unscheduled repairs.

Immediately after the accident, a preliminary survey was carried out, which led to the conclusion that it was necessary to carry out major repairs.

As part of the overhaul of Power Unit No.3 in 2020 the following measures were implemented:

• the readiness of the fuel oil and steam line of the boiler was ensured;
• the installation of the main and auxiliary burners of the boiler was completed;
• the work to install the circuits of the PC-gas-airduct was completed, the gas-air circuit of the boiler was successfully tested for gas density;
• the installation of water and steam blowing devices for the boiler heating surfaces was completed;
• the installation of pulverizing fans Nos. 2, 3, 6 and 7 was completed;
• the installation of Magaldi slag removal system was carried out;
• after applying the required volume of thermal insulation and decorative coating, the diskshaped platens of the boiler were adjusted (boiler weighing);
• the works for installation of cable metal structures, laying cables and installation of electric equipment were continued;
• the works for application of thermal insulation on the boiler elements, the DGAP circuits, and the pipelines were carried out;
• the work was carried out to apply an anti-corrosion coating to the metal structures of the boiler, the boiler auxiliary equipment and the frame of the main building.

ENNOVA JSC, the contractor:

• ensured the steam-water-oxygen cleaning and passivation of the boiler heating surfaces;
• was carrying out the works related to equipment adjustment and setting the hanger-support system and was exercising the functions of the main commissioning organization.

Due to the occurrence of the risk of a decrease in the number of staff due to the restrictions imposed in order to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus infection COVID-19 in the territory of the Russian Federation and the detection of COVID-19 cases at the site which resulted in the temporary suspension of work, the completion of repair and the putting of power unit No. 3 into commercial operation were postponed to the spring of 2021.

The retooling and modernization programme of the Company includes a set of measures to improve the technical and economic level of production, such as:

• regular assessment of the technical condition of the equipment (comprehensive diagnostic examinations, technical inspections, metal control, etc.);
• analysis of the accident rate and defects in the equipment operation as part of the investigation of process non-conformances;
• monitoring changes in the legislation regarding the operation of the power plant equipment, determining the actions required to bring the equipment in line with those requirements;
• finding out opportunities and options for increasing the performance of the main processing equipment;
• discussion of issues aimed at improving the safety of the service staff;
• analysis of the results of inspections of the power plants by third-party supervisory authorities and the results of internal and third-party audits.

By results of those measures, target programmes are formed to improve the reliability and the safety of the equipment of the power plants and the heating networks, programmes to improve fire safety; projects are planned that are aimed at meeting environmental requirements, and cost efficient projects are considered and evaluated. Then the priorities and the deadlines of implementation of certain measures of the target programmes are determined, on the basis of which the retooling and modernization programme is formed for the existing production facilities of the Company for the current period.

The above process is cyclical, the retooling and modernization programme for the future period is reviewed and updated on an annual basis. When investment projects are formed, state-of-the-art technologies, equipment and materials that are available at the time of fulfilment of urgent tasks are necessarily considered and planned for use.

The retooling and modernization programme of the Unipro PJSC production unit includes 165 investment projects, of which 46 are the projects of Berezovskaya GRES, 47 of Surgutskaya GRES-2, 23 of Yaivinskaya GRES, 27 of Shaturskaya GRES and 22 of Smolenskaya GRES.