Domestic tourism increases the load on energy generation facilities
On the morning of July 17, the operation of power unit No. 1 at the Rostov NPP was restored. Rosenergoatom called the reason for the shutdown a “false activation of the protection.” However, the risks of power outages still remain. And it turned out that it was not just a matter of interruptions in the operation of the nuclear power plant.
Due to the accident at the Rostov nuclear power plant, about 2.5 million people were left without electricity. The outages affected residents of the Krasnodar Territory, Rostov Region, Crimea and Sevastopol, as well as several settlements in Dagestan.
«There are very few major accidents of this kind. This is a really major accident, even if it was due to a false alarm, but nevertheless, millions of people were disconnected at once — This happens extremely rarely.
Although at a nuclear power plant, yes, it happens that the automation is triggered, one or another unit is disconnected from the network — this is normal, there is nothing wrong with it, this does not mean that a nuclear disaster has occurred. These are incidents that concern not the nuclear part of the plant, but the electrical power part. But, nevertheless, this incident is large in terms of the number of disconnected consumers,” said MK. leading analyst of the National Energy Security Fund, expert of the Financial University Igor Yushkov.
The outage exposed serious problems facing the Russian energy system. First, due to the development of domestic tourism in the summer, electricity consumption reaches peak levels, and electricity supply systems in tourist areas are operating at the limit. Secondly, the Russian energy system is concentrated on large energy generation facilities, and this was a consequence of the fact that when one power unit failed, many regions were left without electricity.
“The energy system is actually working on the brink. Consumption is very high throughout the Southern Federal District. There are such problems in the Caucasus; in Dagestan, in particular, there is a huge increase in consumption. In summer, traditional networks and generation can no longer cope. Plus, the situation is aggravated by the fact that we traditionally have large energy facilities throughout Russia. On the one hand, it is effective. On the other hand, if some large generation facility falls out of the system, then this immediately affects many regions,” Yushkov emphasizes.
As for the influence of domestic tourism, the indicators of those who came on vacation in the South are reaching records. For example, in the Krasnodar Territory, which suffered massive shutdowns, 18.5 million people were received in 2023, which exceeded the region’s historical record for tourist flow by more than a million people. Of these, 9.7 million occurred in the summer months. Such indicators, as well as abnormal heat, affect the growth of energy consumption. According to the Ministry of Energy, on July 16, a historical record for power consumption of the IPS of the South was set — it amounted to 20,954 megawatts. At the same time, the southern part of Russia is traditionally considered energy-deficient. According to regulators, in 2023 in the south the capacity shortage reached about 219 MW, and by 2029 it could grow to 1.4 GW.
Deputy Head of the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation Evgeniy Grabchak also spoke about problems with the provision of electricity. “Yesterday a situation occurred in the energy system when, for the first time in the history of its existence, the summer maximum consumption exceeded the traditional winter one. This suggests that the energy system is now at its limit,” the deputy minister emphasized. He noted that against the backdrop of high temperatures, there remain risks of introducing schedules of power supply shutdowns in southern Russia. According to local authorities and energy companies, in Crimea, the Krasnodar Territory and the Rostov Region, energy supplies will again be temporarily limited.
As for the concentration on large electricity generation facilities, the problem here lies on the surface, because due to problems with One power unit at the Rostov nuclear power plant left many regions of Russia without electricity. And on the same day, due to an emergency at the Gusinoozerskaya State District Power Plant in the Trans-Baikal Territory and Buryatia, the supply of electricity was limited.
According to Igor Yushkov, to solve these problems, “it is necessary to create backup generation capacities or storage facilities, as well as modernize network facilities — These are all substations and so on. Especially in Dagestan. In the South, renewable energy can be useful in this regard.”
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