MRSK Tsentra : Belgorod power engineers promptly liquidated conditional power outages

Employees of IDGC of Centre - Belgorodenergo division in the course of preparation for the peak load season took part in joint exercises to eliminate massive power outages caused by unfavourable weather conditions in the region.

The most important task of the event was to improve the interaction of the power engineers with representatives of the regional government, local self-government bodies, specialists from the Ministry of Emergency Situations and Traffic Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in the Belgorod Region, the branch of PJSC 'SO UES' Belgorod Transmission Control Centre, the branch of PJSC 'FGC UES' - Chernozemnoye enterprise MES, the branch of Quadra - Belgorod Generation.

In accordance with the plan of the exercises, on the night of 15 December to 16 December 2017, the weather in the region deteriorated sharply. The air temperature rose from -20C to 0C. Hurricane winds passed through the region at the speed of 20 m/s, in places with gusts up to 30 m/s and wet snow. A powerful cyclone caused the shutdown of more than 480 transformer substations, 36 overhead power lines of 6-10 kV. The sharp deterioration in weather conditions led to an increase in the number of de-energized facilities throughout the region. At 10:00 on 16 December, due to the drop of the ground wire, emergency outage of two 110 kV transmission lines feeding the 110 kV Substation 'Pischeprom' in the regional centre occurred. In total, 101 overhead lines of 6-10 kV and 1,102 transformer substations were de-energized in the region. There were more than 90 thousand inhabitants in all districts of the region and 178 socially significant facilities without electricity.

The crisis management centre of IDGC of Centre and the centre for ensuring the security of power supply in the Belgorod region took control of the situation immediately. The Belgorodenergo branch introduced a special mode of operation, which calls for the mobilization of necessary forces and means to restore electricity supply to consumers. With the purpose of prompt liquidation of the consequences, a three-shift schedule of work was announced, an agreement with the municipalities was provided to create power stations with necessary living conditions in the case of working at power facilities in remote sites from 'civilizations'. The specialists of the production safety and production control department checked the availability of all necessary tools, devices and special means for emergency and restoration crews.

First of all, socially significant facilities of the region were fed, for which 24 mobile reserve power sources were used. 98 emergency response and repair crews of the branch, 109 specialized vehicles, specialists from two contract organizations and three structures participating in the exercises took part in emergency repairs.

As a result of well-coordinated joint actions by 14:30, the electricity supply to the de-energized consumers was restored.

Alexey Bryazgunov, Deputy Chief Engineer for Operational, Technological and Situational Management, Head of the Grid Control Centre of IDGC of Centre - Belgorodenergo division stressed: 'The exercises were successful. The training allowed to check the readiness of all emergency services to promptly make optimal decisions to eliminate technological violations caused by unfavourable weather conditions. It was very important to work out the practical skills of interaction of all the participants in emergency repairs. In an emergency, this can be a decisive factor for the fastest possible restoration of power supply to consumers.'