REUTERS
President of Ukraine's national nuclear energy generating company Energoatom Yuriy Nedashkovsky says Ukraine may sign a public-private partnership (PPP) agreement in 2017 for the implementation of the Ukraine-EU Energy Bridge project, which will allow exports of electricity from Khmelnytsky nuclear power plant (KhNPP) unit No. 2 to Poland and Hungary.
"We expect that the Energy and Coal Industry Ministry will soon receive a feasibility study [of the energy bridge project], which will allow the ministry to announce a public-private partnership competition. If all goes well, the minister will be able to sign a public-private partnership agreement with the winner by the end of the year," Nedashkovsky said during a working visit to KhNPP.
Read alsoSynchronized power grids of EU, Ukraine to contribute to Ukrainian exports – EnergoatomAccording to him, the agreement will provide for investment in the reconstruction of the power transmission line from Khmelnytsky NPP to Rzeszow substation (Poland) and reconstruction of Zakhidnoukrainska substation, namely its division into two voltage classes (330kV and 750 kV) with further joining the 750 kV line to the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) in Albertirsa (Hungary).
"The third package of the project envisages works related to an open 750 kV switchgear and the commissioning of a block transformer at the third power unit of KhNPP," Nedashkovsky added.
He also noted that a Skoda reactor unit is being considered now as a base option for the completion of the third KhNPP unit.
CEO of Atomprojectengineering Oleksandr Rybchuk, who also attended the meeting, said that the installed capacity of the third unit of KhNPP could be 1.1 GW, which is 100 MW up from the capacity of two existing units.
"We've decided we can set the capacity of each power unit [units Nos. 3 and 4] at 1.1. GW thanks to the upgrading of the turbine and the turbo generator," Rybchuk said, adding that Skoda has such experience, as it has manufactured three similar reactors.
"This project takes into consideration the fact that Ukrainian producers will account for about 70%, while all Russian supplies are subject to replacement," Rybchuk added.
As UNIAN reported earlier, a tender for choosing the type of reactor facility for the construction of power units Nos. 3 and 4 at KhNPP was held back in 2008, when Russia's Atomstroyexport won it. The Verkhovna Rada denounced the agreement on the KhNPP units with the Russian side in 2015.
In late November 2016, Energoatom announced it was considering the possibility of attracting a European supplier of a VVER-1000 type reactor facility to complete the construction of the said units.
Energoatom presented earlier its Ukraine-EU Energy Bridge project for linking KhNPP power unit No. 2 with ENTSO-E and exporting electricity. Nedashkovsky noted then that electricity supplies to Europe under long-term contracts might allow attracting investment in the completion of power units Nos. 3 and 4 at KhNPP whose readiness is assessed at 73% and 28%, respectively.
Nedashkovsky also reported that Energoatom plans that a draft law on the completion of the third and fourth power units of KhNPP would be approved at the Cabinet meeting by the end of this year and submitted to parliament. According to the company's estimates, Ukraine's integrated power grids will additionally get 15 billion kWh per year due to the construction of these units. The third unit is expected to be commissioned in 2025.
UNIAN memo. Khmelnytsky NPP is located in the city of Netishyn, Khmelnitsky region. Two power units (VVER-1000) with a total capacity of 2 GW operate at the station (put into operation in 1987 and 2004). The main purpose of the station is to cover the gap of electricity facilities in western Ukraine. Work on the completion of the third and fourth units at KhNPP have not been done in the past years, among other things, due to lack of funding.