27 august 2010

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin attends the cornerstone ceremony for the Nizhne-Bureiskaya hydro power station in the Amur Region

Participants:

During his trip on the new Chita-Khabarovsk motorway, Vladimir Putin visited the construction site of the Nizhne-Bureiskaya hydro-electric power station, located a few kilometres from the motorway in the Amur Region.
The prime minister attended the ceremony of laying the first cubic metre of concrete in the foundation of the hydro power station's dam.

The CEO of RusHydro, Evgeny Dod, described the project to the prime minister. He emphasised that the infrastructure necessary to start construction had already been built. The new power station will replace a thermal generating station, thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 1.8 million metric tons a year.

After the cornerstone ceremony, Vladimir Putin said that the new generating plant and the entire complex of the Nizhne-Bureiskaya hydro-electric power station would have a great impact on the power supply in the entire Far-Eastern region, not just the Amur Region. He said the agreements between the station and the distributors testify to the demand for the station's production. He congratulated the builders, engineers and workers on starting construction.

The new power station, located 90km from the Bureiskaya hydro-electric power station on the Amur River downstream, will have four turbines with a total capacity of 320MW. The start-up of the first two turbines, with a capacity of 80MW each, is planned for 2014, with the other two expected to go online in 2015. The Nizhne-Bureiskaya hydro-electric power station is expected to reach full capacity in 2016.

Vladimir Putin's address:

I would like to tell you that we have almost commissioned the Verkhne-Bureyskaya hydro-electric power station: six units are already online. We still have the spillway to construct, some improvements and the top comb to finish, not much. But in general the station is working. The rest will be completed as soon as possible.

But today we have a very important event: construction of a new power station, which is an event by itself, is just one component of the overall complex, the final piece of the project. It means that both the Verkhne-Bureyskaya and Nizhne-Bureyskaya hydro-electric power stations will operate in a sustainable manner, regulating the flow of water and providing a reliable power supply for the entire region. It means that the region will get a new, as I have already mentioned, affordable and cost-efficient source of electricity, and with it, a new basis for development.

Also, the agreements signed today with the power distributors are significant. Before laying the foundation, as you witnessed today, one must be sure of the demand for the end product. And today we have proof that there is demand for it. In addition, I feel confident that these first steps will lead to further development. In other words, this could be seen as the foundation for further development in the region. I congratulate you.

Thank you! I would like to thank the power-engineering specialists. And first and foremost, I would like to thank the engineers and of course those, who are directly involved in construction, I mean the workers standing here in front of me.