Three rotor wheels and seven transformers with a total weight of over 1 660 metric tonnes have been delivered by dump scow towed by motor vessels from the port of Krasnoyarsk to their destination point - the outsize, heavy cargo wharf of the Boguchanskaya HPP on the River Angara. 

The radiaxial rotor wheels of the turbine are manufactured for the Boguchanskaya HPP at the Leningrad Metal Works (LMW), one of the subsidiaries of JSC Siloviye Mashiny.  The first rotor wheel made by LMW was delivered to the Boguchanskaya HPP at the end of the 2008 navigation period.  The rotor wheels for turbines Nos. 2, 3 and 4 have now been delivered to the power station.

The time schedules for manufacturing and shipping the equipment to the Boguchanskaya HPP are drawn up in consideration of the short summer navigation period in Siberia.  The river-sea class vessel carrying three rotor wheels left the St. Petersburg sea-port pier on 10 July.  It passed through the Ladoga and Onega Lakes, along the Belomor-Baltic Canal to the White Sea and then reached the Yenisei by taking the Northern Sea Route.

Having covered over 6.5 thousand kilometers, on 18 August, the vessel arrived at the Krasnoyarsk river port, after which the equipment was reloaded on to river barges for traveling along the Yenisei and Angara to complete its journey by water to the Boguchanskaya HPP. 

In addition to the hydro-power equipment, 7 outsize, heavy transformers produced by the Zaporozhiye Transformer Plant (Ukraine) under a long-term agreement concluded in 2008 for delivery of 15 power and auto-transformers were delivered by Yenisei River Shipping vessels to the Boguchanskaya HPP during the 2009 navigation season.

During the period from 25 May through 5 June, the first batch of transformer equipment was shipped from the manufacturer's warehouse by rail to the sea port of Mariupol, where it was loaded on two river-sea class vessels for further shipping by water to Krasnoyarsk.

The Vesyegonsk and Elektrostal motor vessels covered over 5000 Kilometres from the port of Mariupol along the River Don, the Volgo-Don Canal, the River Volga, the Onega Lake, the Belomor-Baltic Canal, through the White Sea, the Karsk Sea and up the River Yenisei to the port of Krasnoyarsk and, on 17 August, were ready for reloading at the Krasnoyarsk river port. 

The need for further transshipment of the turbine rotor wheels and transformers from ships on to river barges was conditioned by the navigation regime on the River Angara, which is too shallow for rive-sea class vessels to carry heavy cargoes directly to the wharf at the Boguchanskaya HPP.

Let us recall that the total weight of the 7 transformers ready for transportation amounts to 1200 metric tonnes: three transformers with a weight of 120 metric tonnes each and four of 210 metric tonnes each.  Each 7.86-metre diameter turbine rotor wheel weighs 155.6 metric tonnes.

The barges bearing the transformers arrived at the Boguchanskaya HPP and were ready for unloading on 30 August.  On 5 September, the turbine rotor wheels were delivered to the construction site.

JSC Siloviye Mashiny and JSC Zaporozhtransformator are continuing, in accordance with long-term contracts concluded on the initiative of JSC RusHydro and OK RUSAL, to fulfill orders for supplying equipment for the Boguchanskaya HPP currently under construction. 

According to the terms and conditions of the contracts, Siloviye Mashiny company is responsible for designing, manufacturing and delivering nine hydro-turbines and nine-hydro-generators with a nominal capacity of 333 MW each to the Boguchanskaya HPP.  In addition, the specialists of the St. Petersburg power-machine-building company carry out installation supervision, hook-up and start-up operations.  The subsidiaries of Siloviye Mashiny are currently manufacturing equipment for the fifth hydro-turbine, as well as the fourth and fifth hydro-generators.

The second and third batches of transformers will be delivered by JSC Zaporozhtransformator to the Boguchanskaya HPP in 2010 and 2011.

Start-up of the Boguchanskaya HPP hydro-units, which is being constructed in the Krasnoyarsk Territory by the joint efforts of JSC RusHydro and OK RUSAL, is currently the most appropriate and efficient way of replacing the capacity of the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP temporarily lost as a result of the unprecedented accident that occurred at the power station on 17 August, 2009. 

The installed capacity of the Boguchanskaya HPP is 3000 MW and it has an average annual output of 17.6 billion kWh of electric power.  At the moment, JSC RusHydro is drawing up proposals for revising its investment programme for 2009-2011 in consideration of accelerated start-up of the generating units of the Boguchanskaya HPP.  The company will present the new investment programme for consideration by the Government of the Russian Federation.  Accelerated construction of the Boguchanskaya HPP, with start-up of the first three hydro-units in 2010, possible start-up of four hydro-units in 2011 and the remaining two in 2012, will reduce substantially the capacity shortage that has formed in the Siberian grid and provide for subsequent reliable and uninterrupted electricity supplies to consumers.