T Plus aims to sign turbine contract with Power Machines before end-2022 - paper

MOSCOW. Nov 30 (Interfax) - T Plus expects to sign a contract with Power Machines for GTE-65 gas turbines before the end of the year, Andrei Vagner, the general director of T Plus, told the Kommersant newspaper.

"The project is complicated. They wanted to sign a contract in August, but it didn't work out like that," Vagner said, adding that an understanding had now been reached to sign a contract by the end of the year.

The "complication" was that T Plus wanted to receive the modified equipment after running it in at Severstal , but the latter would not install it at its own heat and power plant and the genco would essentially be buying a pilot model. "We are ready to take this risk, because we need two turbines. But there are a lot of nuances, concerning both producing the turbine, and in its quality. The Energy Ministry is also participating in the negotiations, because, let's say, there is no firm conviction that the first turbine will be ready," Vagner said.

He said it was important for the genco that the turbine be delivered as early as 2028, since after that the economic benefit would be lost, and from 2030 "it will no longer be needed at all." The very latest delivery deadlines are being discussed, and the contract will mention "the risk of turbine of inferior quality being supplied," Vagner said.

The Russian Industry and Trade Ministry said in March that the level of domestic manufacturers of turbines, boilers, and electric machines enables them to "produce almost the entire range of equipment for the power industry in their own country," it said. In particular, the ministry expects that innovative gas turbines GTE-65, GTE-170, which are Power Machines projects, and GTD-110M, which is produced by the United Engine Corporation, should be put into operation in Russia by the end of 2024. The ministry has said it did not expect the timeframe for creating such turbines in Russia to be altered.