11.3. Research, Development, and Deployment

The scientific and technological policy of RAO "UES of Russia" Holding Company is aimed at raising production efficiency, reduce costs, create conditions for stable development of the unified energy system, and maintaining energy, industrial, and environmental security. Specialists of the business units and scientific research institutes of RAO "UES of Russia" Group developed the Concept of Technological Policy of the Holding Company, which was approved by the Management Board of OAO RAO "UES of Russia" on 11 April 2005. This document is intended to improve the quality of engineering and technological solutions in the implementation of investment projects, modernization and re-equipment of energy facilities.

A radical solution, which dramatically increases the efficiency of thermal power plants and their competitiveness on the electricity and capacity market, is the broad adoption of combined-cycle gas turbines (CCGT), which will raise the efficiency of power units to 51-54%, and in the future, up to 60%, while minimizing emissions to the atmosphere, curbing the TPPs' increasing demand for natural gas, improving the power plants' environmental performance, dramatically cutting capital spending on new construction and technical upgrade.

In 2004, the first Russian-made combined-cycle gas turbine GTU-110 was put into trial operation at the Ivanovskaya TPP. Such highly-efficient turbine generators will be used as a basis for binary and single-shaft combined-cycle power plants PGU-325 and PGU-170, which are intended for the upgrade of the Holding Company's power plants and replacement of power units that have reached the end of their useful life. Other power units put into operation include a combined-cycle gas turbine unit PGU-220 at the Tyumenskaya CHPP-1 and two combined-cycle gas turbine units with a combined capacity of 78 MW at the Sochinskaya TPP. Work is underway on the project to build the Kaliningradskaya CHPP-2, which will use the advanced combined-cycle technology. OAO "Mosenergo" launched a project to install a combined-cycle gas turbine unit MES-60 at one of its power plants, CHPP-28. The new power unit will help achieve better fuel efficiency and environment performance through utilizing steam injected gas turbines (STIG), which raises the specific efficiency of the power unit and reduces the content of hazardous substances in the flue gases. The power plant also uses steam cooling of high-temperature parts of the combustion chamber and the gas turbine blades.

Work was continued at some operational thermal power plants of OAO "Kuzbassenergo", OAO "Mosenergo", OAO "Orenburgenergo", and at the Kostromskaya TPP, Ryazanskaya TPP, Kashirskaya TPP-4, Tyumenskaya CHPP-1, Kirishskaya TPP aimed at modernizing boilers in order to improve their reliability and economic efficiency, reduce emissions to air, which will boost the competitiveness of these power plants.

In today's economic environment, it is increasingly important to broadly implement new generation metering and control systems, automation equipment based on microprocessor devices and technologies using advanced software and hardware tools, which ensures reliable, efficient and economical management of all operational processes of technological equipment. Along these lines, efforts to develop and implement automated process control systems were continued at the following thermal power plants: Surgutskaya TPP-1, Surgutskaya TPP-2, Kostromskaya TPP, Konakovskaya TPP, Lipetskaya CHPP-2, etc.

As a response to the challenges of the market which imposes increasingly strict demands on the quality of electricity and heat metering and control, regional energos, AO-power plants, research and development organizations, and installation and finishing firms of OAO RAO "UES of Russia" continued their efforts to implement automated energy monitoring and control systems (for electricity and heat) at electricity enterprises. In 2004, such systems, which are already working in many regional energos and AO-power plants, were introduced at OAO "Tomskenergo", OAO "Orenburgenergo", OAO "Barnaulenergo", OAO "Konakovskaya TPP", etc.

In a market environment, the issues of power-frequency control in energy systems become paramount. With that purpose, some power plants took steps to ensure their participation in power-frequency control. Specifically, automated frequency and power control systems were installed at Power Units 4 and 8 of the Konakovskaya TPP; OAO "Kubanenergo" implemented an equipment complex for automated load-shedding at Power Unit No. 3 at the Krasnodarskaya CHPP used for primary frequency control; microprocessor units for collective control of power and frequency were installed at the Ust-Khantayskaya HPP and Kureyskaya HPP of OAO "Taymyrenergo".

An important milestone in addressing the issue of normalizing voltage, especially in 220-500 kV electricity networks, and their maximum adaptation to market conditions was the installation at the CHPP-27 of OAO "Mosenergo" of a Russian-made 320 MW asynchronous turbo generator, which makes it possible to regulate the reactive power in a wider range than conventional synchronous turbo generators.

The need to organize a market for electricity and capacity in Russia and the rapid technological progress make energy companies take a different approach to the development of small-scale power generation using non-conventional renewable sources of energy. Aware of this, OAO RAO "UES of Russia" provides financing to scientific research and development on renewable energy sources, including design and pre-design work for generation projects using geothermal, wind, and tidal power. The Kislogubskaya Tidal Power Plant of OAO "Kolenergo" completed the installation of a hydraulic unit with a Russian-made orthogonal turbine, which exceeds its foreign counterparts in terms of performance (efficiency of up to 70%) and is much cheaper. In the Kaliningrad Region, which now has a wind farm of 5.1 MW capacity, a feasibility study is being conducted for a 50 MW offshore wind farm. The first phase was completed to design a "wind/diesel power system" with a revolutionary control system, which helps make maximum use of the wind flow and reduce diesel fuel consumption by up to 40%—a factor that is especially important for the areas of Russia's extreme north. In the Kamchatskaya Region, studies are underway to explore the feasibility of installation of Power Unit No. 4 at the Verkhne-Mutnovskaya GeoTPP with a binary cycle (capacity of 6.5 MW) and develop a project to use geothermal energy for district heating in the Yelizovsky District of the region.