The second lot with oversized and heavy units for the new hydro-electric sets of Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP was shipped on a river barge to the berth near Maina HPP on September 25th, 2011. This occasion completed the water phase of cargo delivery as a part of destroyed plant restoration.
The second consignment comprises three sets of units. Each set includes: a runner (145 tn, 6,84 m in diameter), an oil bath of generator bearing socket (21 tn, 6,1 m in diameter) and a 13 tn core of stand-by generator rotor with a diameter of 6,09 m.
The shipment was performed in the only possible way – via sea and river routes in the summer navigation of 2011. Initially, air delivery was considered, but even an aircraft Ruslan with the largest freight area couldn’t fit the hoops which were over 6 m in diameter. Land haulage was excluded as well – the possible way had a great many extraordinary passages. It was decided to use the way that had been laid while building the hydro-electric power plant in the 70-80s – by water from Saint-Petersburg across the Arctic Ocean. The first lot of equipment for hydro-electric sets was forwarded to the transshipment point on August 9th, 2011.
Delivery was complicated, mainly because the out-of-gauge equipment had to travel along the river for the first time in 20 years. The experts faced a task, whether the remaining facilities could still be used or they wouldn’t do.
It was also required to pass the Kara Gates (the strait between Novaya Zemlya and Vaigach islands which connects the Barents and the Kara Seas). Shipping in this area is limited because of difficult ice conditions and is possible in a very tight period. So, in the course of the first shipment, they had to wait for the weather to release this area, and during the second shipment it was required to let through the vessel before the gates close.
JSC RusHydro entered into the second phase of Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP restoration in 2011. Ten absolutely new hydro-electric sets will be mounted in the turbine room of the plant. Only four sets have been in operation since the tragedy in August, 2009. They were restored, but still, they will be replaced by new units.
It took almost a month to transport the precious cargo to Krasnoyarsk. The process started on August 25th, as soon as the vessel carrying the lot left the pier of Leningrad metal factory on Sverdlovskaya embankment in Saint-Petersburg. Then it proceeded across Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega and entered the White Sea after traveling via the Belomor-Baltic canal to finally follow the Northern sea way and take the way up the Yenisei.
In the Krasnoyarsk port of Peschanka the hydro-electric sets were reloaded from the river-sea motor vessel to the river barge. Then a special canal lift delivered the barge to the upstream wall of Krasnoyarsk hydro-electric plant (the height of the dam hits 124 m) and proceeded along the Krasnoyarsk reservoir. In a few days the cargo reached its destination point at the berth of Maina HPP, which is located downstream of Yenisei 21,5 km away from Sayano-Shushenskaya plant, where it was unloaded and trucked to the assembly site of SS plant.
For this purpose, two tractors had earlier arrived at the hydro-electric plant. They were required to implement the final stage of hydro-electric set delivery. The trucks, manufactured by Minsk Wheel Tractor Plant, are designed for hauling trailers with a maximum weight of 400 tn. They delivered the runners and the remaining equipment from the transshipment point of Maina HPP to the assembly site of SS plant.