Construction of the fourth power generating unit with BN-800 reactor of Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Plant was launched in the 1980's. Later, the construction was suspended until the beginning of 2000's. By that time, more sophisticated equipment entered the power-plant engineering market. The decision was made to update the project with view to include the modern technological solutions. Thus, in 2007, the cooperation of High-Voltage Union, Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Plant and St. Petersburg Atomenergoproekt (SPbAEP) as the general designer was launched.
The Concern received serious requirements to the equipment from the Customer and the Design Institute. Some engineering solutions required the High-Voltage Union specialists to improve the structure of the Concern's switchgears type KU6S, but the main point was to introduce at the manufacturing plant NTEAZ-Electric LLC the special quality control software for designing and production of nuclear power plant equipment. Moreover, the Concern had to receive licenses from Gosatomnadzor of Russia to design and manufacture the nuclear power plant equipment as well as licenses for access to the state secret classified information.
The employees of NTEAZ-Electric LLC were trained and appraised, the whole control process of development and production of nuclear power plant equipment was reconsidered for compliance with the Nuclear Power Plant requirements (programmes of Quality Assurance in Manufacturing Safety-Related Nuclear Power Plant Equipment (POKASI) and Quality Assurance in Designing Safety-Related Nuclear Power Plant Equipment (POKASR), for almost a year. Rivne Plant of High-Voltage Equipment contributed a lot to the solution of this issue, since in the Soviet era this Plant was one of the few switchgear-manufacturers that produced the equipment for nuclear power plants.
Thus, the cooperation with Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Plant to produce the equipment for power generating unit No. 4 with reactor BN-800 became a new landmark of High-Voltage Union Concern development in the issues concerning getting the approval of technical solutions and quality of equipment production. So, when concluding the contract on supply of KU6S series switchgears we were ready to implement the contract.
In 2010, High-Voltage Union Concern won a tender for equipment supply, having shown the best combination of price, quality, technical compliance of the equipment supplied and after-sales services. The contract was signed. The quality plans had been developed and the equipment production was launched. We had a tight schedule and a large scope of supply – about 250 switchgears series KU6S. That's why we had to work really fast.
In 2011, the equipment was produced; it passed the control by the Quality Control Department of the Plant, by the controlling body VO «Safety» under Rosenergoatom Concern JSC as well as by the representatives of the customer Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Plant.
At the moment, we are running stage-by-stage commissioning of the equipment. Additional switchgears are ordered. The majority of KU6S switchgears are already installed and alive, and the rest is being installed, started-up and commissioned. All along putting the equipment into operation on-site, the High-Voltage Union after-sales and installation supervision departments accompany all the works.
A strong launch, which started the relations between High-Voltage Union Concern and Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Plant, made a solid basis for further long-term cooperation. In 2011, switchgears series KU6S involved in the safety system of active power generating unit No. 3 were used. At the same time, the specialists of NTEAZ-Electric LLC developed a solution for modernization of the RU-6kV switchgear of active power generating unit No. 3 of Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Plant with BN-600 reactor by replacing oil circuit-breaker withdrawable units with new withdrawable units fitted with modern vacuum circuit-breakers type BP1 and BP2.
And in 2013, under this technical solution more than hundred withdrawable units were manufactured and delivered. At the moment, we have started manufacturing the equipment previously designed by the Engineering Department of High-Voltage Union Concern: BP6B withdrawable units to be used in KE6 switchgears. It is worth mentioning that KE6 switchgears were produced by Rivne Plant of High-Voltage Equipment in the 1980's. So one may suppose that the cooperation between High-Voltage Union Concern and Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Plant started back in the 1980's.
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