The most powerful HPP of the North-West will be modernised by 2023

The upgrade of the most powerful in the North-West of Russia and one of the world's northern underground hydropower plants, Verkhne-Tulomskaya HPP in Murmansk Oblast, will be completed by 2023. On Friday, the press service of TGC-1, which owns the HPP, informed that one of the four hydroelectric generating units of the plant will be modernised every year starting from the current one.

"The upgrade will be carried out step by step on all hydroelectric generating units since 2019 till 2022, the fourth hydroelectric generating unit will be upgraded first," said the Company, adding that the upgrade cost will amount to RUB 6.8 billion.

Equipment from the Czech Republic. This week, within the framework of the upgrade programme, a new impeller for hydroelectric generating unit No. 4 has been delivered from the plant in the Czech Republic to Verkhne-Tulomskaya HPP on the route 3.7 thousand km long. It was delivered by road and sea transport from Blansko (Czech Republic) via Kiel (Germany) and St. Petersburg to the Verkhnetulomsky village in Murmansk Oblast.

It was produced and tested at ČKD Blansko Holding, a subsidiary of JSC Tyazhmash in the Czech Republic. A monument is going to be created from the old dismantled impeller and established next to the HPP.

In general, the HPP upgrade project envisages an increase in capacity of each of the four hydroelectric generating units by 8 MW up to 75 MW due to replacement of control, protection, automation and other equipment. This will improve the efficiency and reliability of the plant, as well as its sustainability.

The Verkhne-Tulomskaya HPP underground plant is the most powerful hydroelectric power plant in the North-West region of Russia and one of the northernmost hydroelectric power plants in the world with an underground HPP building. Verkhne-Tulomskaya HPP plays a key role in the power system of Murmansk Oblast: it ensures electricity transmission to Karelia and serves as a reserve for the entire Northern energy district.

It was built by joint efforts of Russian and Finnish specialists. Before the construction of the HPP, the Tuloma river had a drop of 28 m on a section of 2.5 km. After the dam construction and the placement of the turbine room underground, the height difference for water was 60 m. It was brought into operation on 27 October 1965.

Verkhne-Tulomskaya HPP is special with its underground fish plant for growing rainbow trout placed next to the turbine room. This is an aquaculture enterprise specialising in trout breeding in the Far North conditions. The plant has existed since 1992 and uses a water-storage basin which does not have industrial emissions. The construction was conducted by the Finnish company Atri.

The plant is located underground at a depth of 50 m; on sections of the underground transport tunnel with a total length of 250 meters there is an incubation shop consisting of 28 pools where tiny fish is grown and a workshop of the breeder stock. When reaching a certain weight, tiny fish is sold to fish farms mainly in Murmansk Oblast and the Republic of Karelia.

The technology of mixing warm water supplied by the HPP and cold water from the water-storage basin allows to create perfect conditions required for tiny fish breeding. TGC-1 is a leading producer and supplier of electricity and heat in the North-West of Russia. The Company comprises power plants within the four entities of the Russian Federation: St. Petersburg, Republic of Karelia, Leningrad and Murmansk Oblasts.

Source: Russian News Agency TASS