Gusinoozerskaya GRES is one of the largest in Transbaikalia

On the shore of the Gusinoy Lake in the Zaghustai Valley there is a thermal station constructed according to the condenser type. This is Gusinoozerskaya GRES. Buryatia, located to the east of Lake Baikal, is famous for its resource-producing industries, as well as associated production facilities for primary processing.

Large fuel and energy complex

The richness of the Buryat natural resources combined with the severe climatic belt caused by the sharply continental climate became the reason for the decision to build a power station in a hundred and ten kilometers from Ulan-Ude. And today Gusinoozerskaya GRES, located four kilometers from the second largest city in the republic, is one of the main enterprises of the region. The homonymous housing estate became a place for its construction on the basis of a coal mine. The design task for which the Gusinoozerskaya GRES was created was developed by the Tomsk branch of Teploelectroproekt. It is interesting that while agreement on the feasibility study was under way , some of the decisions were outdated, and the USSR State Planning Committee had to send them for processing.

Starting the station

The first power unit was launched in late December 1976. The main task that Gusinoozerskaya GRES took on itself is to meet the needs of the energy system of the Republic of Buryatia, which is part of the integrated industry of the entire Trans-Baikal region. The next three were put into operation every subsequent year. The second stage of the station began to be launched from 1988, with the introduction of the fifth head station power unit. Four years later, the sixth entered the work, and the construction of the seventh was scheduled to begin at the same time, in 2005, put into operation. However, the financial problems that were formed prevented the planned plans from being implemented. At the moment the construction is frozen. Over the years, the quality of coal in the Kholbolzhinsky section began to deteriorate, its ash content reached thirty percent. Therefore, the management decided that the boiler units of the first stage of the station should be reconstructed and transferred to dry slag removal.

The process started with the second power unit. Then, reconstruction work began to be carried out at the fourth, but due to lack of funds, changes in the structure of the fuel used were suspended. And after a while the block itself was mothballed. Since its launch, Gusinoozerskaya GRES produces more than 4.5 billion kW / h of electricity annually. However, due to a sharp deterioration in many of the qualitative characteristics of coal, as well as financial and technical and economic indicators of the Kholboldzhinsky mine, it had to be closed, and Gusinoozerskaya GRES was forced to look for new suppliers for fuel. Today it is the Tugnui mines.

Equipment

Gusinoozerskaya GRES operates today on the equipment of the German company Claudius Peters Group. It allows at least thirty percent reduction in the annual volume of storage. Another advantage of this technology lies in the possibility of secondary use of ash and slag waste in the process of manufacturing various building materials. This direction is recognized as the most promising today, as dry ash produced by power plants has a number of advantages, in contrast to traditional natural resources. It is curious that the second chimney of Gusinoozerskaya GRES has a height of 330 meters. It is one of the twenty-five highest pipes of the whole world.

Prospects

The installed capacity of this Buryat power plant is more than a thousand one hundred megawatts. For this region, this means lowering energy costs, improving the quality of construction, and ultimately the appearance of already very real prerequisites for the implementation of so many social programs. And all this is provided by the Gusinoozerskaya GRES. JSC OGK-3, of which it is a branch, is the third generation company in the wholesale electricity market. Today the company employs more than a thousand people, sixty percent of whom have a higher technical education.