Ukraine's Energoatom plans to purchase equipment for Khmelnitsky NPP maintenance

MOSCOW. Aug 13 (Interfax) - Ukraine's nuclear power plant operator Energoatom intends in the near future to announce a tender to procure equipment for repairing a turbine at Unit 2 of the Khmelnitsky Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), Ukrainian media quoted Energoatom's acting chairman, Petr Kotin, as saying in a commentary.

"The technical specifications for the turbine's repairs are almost ready, and there'll be a tender for it. Whoever complies with these specifications will get a contract. After that, the turbine will be repaired," Kotin said while visiting the Khmelnitsky NPP a few days ago.

Without repairs, the NPP unit's capacity is 150 MW lower than due, he said.

"The problem is, we've been kept from having this turbine repaired actually for two years. One of the potential contractors wishing to get this contract but having no experience in repairing precisely this type of turbines is doing everything possible to obstruct the repairs of this turbine through the Antimonopoly Committee," he said.

As reported, Energoatom in late September 2023 called off an open tender for supplying a rotor of a high-pressure cylinder with a wheel space for a K 1000-60/3000 turbine to the Khmelnitsky NPP with an expected value of UAH 583.438 million excluding VAT, in which the Kharkov-based company JSC Ukrainian Energy Machines offered to deliver equipment valued at UAH 298 million

The decision to call off the tender was made on September 2023 based on a letter from the Centralized Procurements separate unit considered by an authorized official and taking into account a decision by a working group on public procurements owing to "the reduction of the volume of expenditures on the procurement of goods, work, or services."

The open tender with special terms was announced back on March 30, 2024, under which said equipment was to be delivered by March 2025.

JSC Ukrainian Energy Machines have filed complaints with the Antimonopoly Committee three times against the tender's discriminatory terms and the contract owner's failure to comply with the Antimonopoly Committee's decisions as regards amending the tender documentation, which has prompted a postponement of the bid opening date.