Pavel Livinsky, head of Rosseti PJSC, spoke about measures taken by the company to ensure the reliability of its networks during this autumn-winter season. A nationwide meeting held to discuss the preparation of power and utility entities for the upcoming autumn-winter period was attended by Alexander Novak, Energy Minister of the Russian Federation, and Vladimir Yakushev, Minister of Construction, Housing and Utilities of the Russian Federation and took place at the Russian Energy Week in Moscow.

Pavel Livinsky pointed out that the obligations Rosseti took last to enhance reliability and ensure fault-free supply of consumers had been fulfilled: “We have managed to reduce significantly the number of disruptions and emergencies in the networks. Over the eight months of 2018, the average amount of disruptions has dropped by 39%, the average duration of power cuts by 33%, and the number of technological faults in 110 kV power lines decreased by 7% compared to the same period of the last year.”

Alexander Novak, Energy Minister, highly praised work of Rosseti in improving the reliability of power supply to homes and stressed that it was largely due to the company’s regular work on upgrade of its networks as well as power line right-of-ways clearing.

“This year, the company has invested 64 billion rubles in maintenance and repair, which is 3 billion rubles more than in 2017,” said head of Rosseti. “About 10 thousand teams numbering over 50 thousand specialists have been deployed in repair and emergency works. These teams are equipped with automobiles and special equipment exceeding 51 thousand units to work 24/7. The grid system is ready to use over 5.3 thousand back-up sources of power supply with a total capacity of 417 MW.”

Alexander Novak, Energy Minister, embraced Rosseti’s activity to conduct drills in certain regions of Russia which are particularly vulnerable in terms of reliability of electricity supply and experience massive power outages. He believes that Rosseti’s experience will help implement the programme of recovering and upgrading the networks, enhancing its reliability and reducing electricity losses in a very short time.

In his report Pavel Livinsky pointed out that the major exercises and drills had been held in the Republic of Dagestan last summer that ensured more than a million people from now on will have reliable and high-quality power supply. Currently, Rosseti is monitoring exercises in the Tver region and the Republic of Karelia, attracting over 8 thousand specialists and around 1.5 thousand units of equipment.

Energy Minister also gave instructions to boost measures on consolidation of power grid assets at Rosseti.

 “As part of the company’s efforts to consolidate power grids, the group has consolidated transformer substations with a total capacity of 133 MVA and 1240 km of power lines. Another 320 facilities are next in line for consolidation.” said Livinsky.

Boris Ayuyev, CEO of System Operator of the United Power System, appreciated Rosseti’s efforts to elaborate and approve the Plan for development of the operational, technological and situational management in the power grid sector, which benefited the reliability of the electricity grid operation and power supply of consumers.

The head of Rosseti brought a motion to cooperate with the administrations of large cities to jointly drill contingency plans when as a result of disruptions at the heating infrastructure the load on networks increases dramatically. Alexander Novak endorsed this initiative.