Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire

Major Energy and Environmental News and Commentary affecting the Nuclear Industry.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Alstom signs strategic agreements with Russia's hydro, nuclear, thermal, grid firms

Alstom has signed strategic agreements with major Russian energy companies to jointly provide power generation products and services for Russia's power industry in the fields of hydro, thermal, nuclear and electricity transmission.
 
Russia is looking to expand its power generation capacity to support the country's growing energy needs. The government intends to increase hydropower by 60 per cent by 2020 and double it by 2030.
 
It has also launched a new nuclear programme with six large reactors under construction and seven replacement plants planned. Ten reactors totaling at least 9.8 GW are to be installed by 2016 and a further 21.7 GW by 2020.
 
The Russian government also intends to focus on improving energy efficiency by the retrofitting, retirement and replacement of its existing fleet of thermal power plants. To that end, Alstom and the following major Russian energy companies have entered into the following agreements:
 
In the field of hydropower, Alstom Power has signed a strategic co-operation agreement with RusHydro JSC, Russia's biggest hydropower generation company, to jointly exploit opportunities in the booming Russian hydropower industry.
 
The agreement covers four key directions of cooperation: reconstruction and modernization of the Kubanski cascade hydropower complex in Southern Russia; cooperation for the development of hydropower activities; cooperation in areas of R&D and investment; and local manufacturing of hydropower equipment in the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia.
 
The Kubanski cascade project will include the installation of a new instrumentation and control system as well as a site security system, following an earlier memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the two parties in September 2010.
 
In the field of nuclear power generation, Alstom Power and the Russian state atomic energy corporation Rosatom, the regulatory body of the Russian nuclear infrastructure, under the 2007-established joint venture Alstom-Atomenergomash (AAEM), signed several new agreements to further support Russia's growing nuclear energy market.
 
One MoU details plans to set up a local facility to manufacture Alstom's Arabelle nuclear steam turbines, the most powerful steam turbines in the world, as well as steam turbines for fossil fuel applications. A second MoU with the Inter RAO UES - Worley Parsons (IRWP) joint venture was signed to establish an engineering consortium to jointly design turbine islands for Russia's VVER reactor-based nuclear power plants.
 
In the field of thermal power generation, Alstom Power and Inter RAO UES, a key power supplier with a number of generation and distribution assets in Russia and abroad, signed a MoU to develop cooperation in order to jointly provide industrial products and services for Russia's power industry.
 
Projects will include the installation of new instrumentation and control systems as well as site security systems. The joint venture will produce small steam turbine packages for power and joint district steam heating and power applications.
 
The MoU also covers cooperation for new and repowered steam plant installations, and for combined cycle applications and associated equipment (boilers, turbines, environmental protection systems, and power automation and controls) operating at supercritical (and above) steam conditions. A further agreement will consider Inter RAO UES' entry into the Alstom-Atomenergomash (AAEM) joint venture's capital.
 
Alstom Power also signed an agreement with Mosenergo, a subsidiary of Gazprom, the largest extractor of natural gas in the world and the largest Russian company, to develop combined cycle power technologies, supply integrated power island solutions for thermal plants and modernize and repower Mosenergo's fleet.
 
In addition, Alstom has signed a co-operation agreement with Rostechnologii, a specialized Russian organization, involved in the production and supply of Russian high-tech material and equipment, to supply coal fired power plants with Alstom's market-leading steam plant technology and Rostechnologii's Boiler Circulating Pumps (BCP).
 
In the field of electricity transmission, Alstom Grid and OAO FSK EES, the federal operator of Russia's unified electrical grid system, signed an agreement to establish an Alstom Grid - FSK research cooperation in the Skolkovo technology zone of Moscow, focusing on a variety of tasks intended to increase the efficiency, reliability and security of the Russian electrical grids.
 
This builds on an earlier industrial and technology cooperation agreement for the modernization of the Russian electrical grid through improved local production and the introduction of advanced Smart Grid technologies. The companies have begun studying options for the localization of the production of Alstom Grid equipment.
 
The ongoing cooperation covers both technical and production process advancements for products such as high and ultra-high voltage power transformers, gas and air-insulated substations, high voltage direct current transmission (HVDC), flexible AC transmission systems (FACTS), and automation solutions.
http://www.powergenworldwide.com/index/display/articledisplay/7982470015/articles/powergenworldwide/Business/contracts-and-projects/2010/12/alstom-signs_strategic.html

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