Rostec to launch first unit of Udarnaya power plant in Taman in Jan

MOSCOW. Jan 17 (Interfax) - The first generating unit of the Udarnaya thermal power plant in Krasnodar Territory has undergone comprehensive testing and is scheduled to go into operation in January, state corporation Rostec reported.

The plant's "equipment operated for 72 hours at nominal capacity, supplying electricity to the country's Unified Energy System" and the "stated specifications were confirmed," Rostec said.

"The Udarnaya TPP project is big and complex. There were substantial changes due to the geopolitical situation, including in the composition of generating equipment. Nonetheless, our enterprises, both builders and equipment suppliers, are meeting this challenge," Rostec head Sergei Chemezov was quoted as saying in the press release.

The 560 MW Udarnaya plant is being built under new generation competitive capacity offtake mechanism. The plant uses the domestic GTD-110M turbine made by United Engine Corporation (UEC), a division of Rostec. The project will earn a return with payments from industrial electricity customers.

The plant, which is being built by Rostec division Technopromexport (TPE), was initially supposed to go into operation in April 2021, but the launch was rescheduled to 2023 due to the reconfiguration of the project. The first unit was expected to start operations in late October and the second in late November.

The capacity offtake mechanism provides for fines for investors if they fail to meet deadline commitments. But for Udarnaya, gradual attestation mechanism was introduced so that it could be launched in stages. "They will generate power from two turbines and build another GTD-110M turbine in May 2024. If they don't build it, then we will take everything that they received for the first two turbines," Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Snikkars said earlier.