Construction time shortened for Belarusian nuclear station’s electricity delivery system

The time to build the system to deliver electricity from the Belarusian nuclear power plant to the national power grid has been reduced from six to five years, Mr Vyacheslav Krivorotov, Head of the Information and Analysis Office of the Belarusian national electrical company Belenergo, told BelTA.

The relevant agreement was reached during negotiations between representatives of the Grodno Oblast electrical company Grodnoenergo and representatives of the Chinese company NCPE, which is the general contractor in charge of building the electricity delivery system and the link to the national power grid as part of the project to build the Belarusian nuclear station.

The project’s completion time has been brought into compliance with requirements of the general credit agreement between the Belarus government as represented by the Finance Ministry and the Export-Import Bank of China, said the source.

The bulk of the money to finance the project is supposed to come as preferential-rate loans from the Export-Import Bank of China. The package of documents required to sign the relevant credit agreement has been prepared and is being considered.

NCPE Company suggested financing the design work at its own expense before the credit agreement is signed and confirmed the readiness to welcome Belarusian specialists in April 2013 for the sake of working out technical and financial decisions regarding the contract signed by Grodnoenergo and NCPE Company.

The source reminded that the contract between Grodnoenergo and the Chinese company NCPE was signed in August 2012. The contract envisages the construction and reconstruction of 330kV power lines, the construction of 330kV substations as part of the nuclear power plant’s electricity delivery system, including the design, construction, reconstruction, delivery, installation of the equipment, startup and commissioning, trial operation, personnel training, and aftersales maintenance. Plans were made for Belarusian design institutions to carry out the required designing using Belarusian standards. As much as 50% of the work required will be performed by Belarusian companies as part of the project’s implementation.