Today marks the end of the six weeks Prime Minister Vladimir Putin gave to formulate a plan for the restoration of the Sayano-Shushenskaya Hydroelectric Power Plant. The plan was to take into account the established causes of the accident, but the causes have not been declared. The Energy Ministry acknowledges that the plan is not yet ready and that there is no final agreement on how the station will be rebuilt. However, it has already been determined that the power plant needs ten turbines from Silovye Mashiny totaling 21 billion roubles.
Vladimir Putin had given instructions to the Energy Ministry and RusHydro Company to submit a plan for the restoration of the power plant to the government before October 2. "It must be approved by a government resolution," Mr Putin said on August 21, noting that adequate financial resources had to be set aside for the implementation of the plan. The restoration plan was to take into account the causes of the accident. The causes were to be announced by Rostekhnadzor (Federal Service for Supervision of Environment, Technology and Nuclear Management) following its investigation by September 15. This deadline was subsequently pushed back to September 25.
The accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya Hydroelectric Power Plant (installed capacity of 6400 mW) occurred on August 17 when turbine No.2 was dislodged from its concrete foundation, flooding the engine room. Nine out of the ten turbines were destroyed and 75 people died as a result. The Energy Ministry estimates that it will take 40 billion roubles and five years to repair the station.
The Ministry's press secretary Irina Yesipova told Kommersant that a preliminary plan for the restoration of the Sayano-Shushenskaya Hydroelectric Power Plant was ready and the final version is "nearly complete", noting that the plan could not be completed until Rostekhnadzor declares the official causes of the accident. Ms Yesipova did not disclose any details of the plan. For its part, Rostekhnadzor says that it has "fulfilled the instruction and prepared a report on the technical investigation." The report was submitted to the government commission, which will discuss it at its October 6 meeting.
Yevgeny Druzyaka, a spokesperson for RusHydro, says that his company had submitted to the Ministry of Energy an analysis of possible sources of funding for the project and an assessment of the condition of the equipment. Mr Druzyaka did not elaborate on how exactly the construction project would be financed. It was announced earlier that the company would finance the project using its own money and loans. RusHydro may also issue additional shares provided the state retains a controlling stake. Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said that state-owned banks could take part in the additional issue, but a Kommersant source familiar with the situation says that so far neither Sberbank, VEB nor VTB have expressed a desire to buy shares. Dmitry Terekhov, an analyst with the Finam investment company, believes that the company should take out loans rather than "dilute its equity capital".
Despite the fact that no plan for the restoration of the power plant yet exists, Silovye Mashiny has been named as the manufacturer of the new turbines. Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin will hold a conference in St Petersburg today on the future of power plant engineering during which the concern will sign an agreement with RusHydro to manufacture, deliver and service ten new turbines for the Sayano-Shushenskaya Hydroelectric Power Plant. According to Maria Aleyeva, a spokesperson for Silovye Mashiny, the company is prepared to deliver six turbines in 2011 (the first in January and then one every two months) and four more in 2012. The cost of the turbines is not yet known. The price of Silovye Mashiny's contract to provide nine turbines to the Boguchany Hydroelectric Power Plant was 6 billion roubles, but the company notes that their capacity is only half of that required for the Sayano-Shushenskaya Power Plant. Kirill Tachennikov, an analyst with the Otkrytie financial company, estimates the cost of the turbines for the Sayano-Shushenskaya power plant at 21 billion roubles.
Yekaterina Belikova