The Adler district of Sochi hosted today the celebrations dedicated to the commissioning of the Adler CHPS.

The celebrations were attended by the Russian Government Chairman Dmitry Medvedev and the Gazprom Management Committee Chairman Alexey Miller.

“At present, the Adler CHPS is the most state-of-the-art and productive power generating facility in Sochi. A new energy heart of the city!

The commissioning of the brand-new combined heat and power station enabled to significantly enhance power supplies to Sochi, secure uninterrupted electricity and heat supplies to sports and tourist infrastructure in the Imereti Lowland as well as to facilities intended for developing Sochi as a mountain resort. At the same time, the Sochi power district became considerably less dependent on the neighboring power networks – the Adler CHPS output would cover over one-third of the projected peak demand at the time of the sports competitions in 2014. In the future, there are plans for the Adler CHPS to provide heat supplies to the Blinovo residential district of Sochi.

Gazprom continues consistently reaching its strategic goal for the power sector – bringing its efficiency indicators to the level of the world's largest utility companies,” said Alexey Miller.

During the celebrations the Adler CHPS power-generating units were brought to their full capacity of 360 MW.

Background

The Adler CHPS is an advanced combined heat and power station with the output of 360 MW (heat output – 227 Gcal/h) composed of two independent PGU-180 combined cycle gas turbine units. Each unit comprises two gas turbines manufactured by Ansaldo Energia (Italy) and a steam turbine manufactured by Kaluga Turbine Works.

In 2009 Gazprom Group launched construction activities at a site of 9.89 Ha. The project was implemented on the land with no infrastructure.

The configuration of the power station design and construction allows meeting all the main demands for power and heat generation as well as environmental requirements. Engineering solutions and materials applied during the Adler CHPS construction are in line with the highest Russian and international environmental standards.

The main Adler CHPS equipment is based on the advanced combined cycle gas turbine technology that secures high efficiency (52 per cent), low fuel consumption and an average 30 percent reduction of atmospheric emissions as compared with conventional steam turbines.

The Adler CHPS cooling system is a closed-loop water supply system with dry ventilator cooling towers. Such a system does not lead to higher air humidity and environmental pollution due to cooled water circulating in a closed loop.

As the most eco-friendly energy source, natural gas is the main and backup fuel of the Adler CHPS.

Owing to the state-of-the art engineering and architectural solutions, the station fits well into a unique natural landscape. Lawns and tree alleys are planted along the total area of 3 Ha occupying the Adler CHPS premises. The first alley of ten deodars was planted in 2009 during the celebrations dedicated to the Adler CHPS construction startup.

The Black Sea coast, including the city of Sochi, had traditionally been an energy dependent region. By the time the decision was made on the Adler CHPS construction, local power stations were satisfying some 25 per cent of the city's power demand, the rest was supplied by power networks of the neighboring regions. Owing to the anticipated sharp increase in the energy demand in Sochi and in order to guarantee safe power and heat supplies to the sports and tourist infrastructure facilities in Sochi, the Adler CHPS construction project was included into the Program for the Construction of Olympic Venues and the Development of Sochi as a Mountain Resort, approved by the Russian Government.

The Adler CHPS is also the subject of WGC-2 contracts for power supply (WGC-2 is the Adler CHPS operating organization. Gazprom Energoholding is the WGC-2 controlling shareholder).

Gazprom Investproject, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gazprom acts as an investor. The Adler CHPS construction project was the first independent project of Gazprom using the project financing principles. A loan from Vnesheconombank was taken for the project implementation purposes. As part of the Russian Regions Gasification Program and in order to ensure gas supplies to the Adler CHPS, Gazprom Mezhregiongaz constructed a gas supply facility (within the Gas Pipeline to Adler CHPS project) made up in two strings. The length of each string is 25.5 km.