OREANDA-NEWS. November 1, 2007. Prospects for cooperation of Russia and Byelorussia in power industry were discussed at the workshop “Days of Russia at the Byelorussian Energy and Ecology Forum” held in Minsk on October 17–18 within the framework of the 12th International Specialized Exhibition “Energy. Ecology. Energy Saving”. It was suggested by the Byelorussian Ministry of Energy to have an additional meeting with SibCOTES to discuss possible ways of cooperation.

The interest in the Company was aroused after the presentation made by Mr. Sergey Paseko, Director for Electrical and Control Systems in SibCOTES. He described new technological solutions that could be applied at electric power stations in Byelorussia. In particular, the case in point was switching of power equipment from firing one type of fuel to another. SibCOTES has wide experience in such projects at different power stations in Russia and overseas. In addition to usual work packages to switch coal-fired power stations to off-design coals, the Company has implemented the projects for switching power stations from oil and natural gas firing to coal firing. Last year, the Company prepared the Feasibility Study for switching four Alumina Plants owned by RUSAL to coal firing. At present, the Company is implementing the project to switch the equipment at Arkhangelskaya CHP plant from oil to coal firing.

Since Byelorussia plans to implement the program for the reconstruction of power industry facilities in the nearest future, there is a lively interest in such experience accumulated in Russia. The main objective will be switching of power stations from firing expensive gas, which is currently bought in Russia, to cheaper alternative resources readily available within the country - peat, brown coal, biological resources. According to Mr. Sergey Paseko, the projects implemented by SibCOTES are of great interest to Byelorussia due to shortage of engineering companies in the Republic itself. Cooperation with SibCOTES and similar companies will allow the government of the Republic to realize the projects, for which domestic resources are not available.