Rosenergoatom delegation visits Zagorskaya PSP

08.12.2006 // Press service of Rosenergoatom

On Dec 6, 2006, a delegation of the Rosenergoatom concern visited the Zagorskaya Pumped Storage Plant (PSP) to familiarize itself with the plant’s activities

The objective of the visit was to consider the proposal for the concern’s participation in the construction of new PSPs.

The peculiarity of the Zagorskaya PSP is that it is meant for “smoothing” consumption peaks.

The director general of Rosenergoatom Sergey Obozov comments on what he has seen at the plant:: “I have got convinced that pumped storage plants cannot be considered as an independent generating business. Now they are turned on and off for 30 times a day, now they stay idle for three days in a row. This is more like a system service for regulating frequency and voltage and this is the function of the Central Operating Department.

In Russia PSPs are subject to operating restrictions because there is no mechanism for providing such a service in the country. Rosenergoatom could pay to the system operator for not being “unloaded” and could prove to the Federal Tariff Service that it should have a relevant share in the tariff. The question is how it will do it without a network of high maneuver pumped storage plants? That’s why we support the program for building five pilot PSPs in the European region of Russia. We will be able to consider investing in the sector only in the autumn 2007 when we examine the feasibility report on Zagorskaya PSP. But! From the above said we understand that the provision of such a service will not be our specialization.”