OREANDA-NEWS. On 28 August 2008 was announced, that Russian specialists in power engineering presented a turbine that was operated in Russia for almost 80 years to its manufacturer, the AEG concern. The turbine will be exhibited in the German Museum of Technology in Berlin. The facility was transferred at a solemn ceremony that was held on August 26 at the Samara GRES in the presence of Mikhail Slobodin, IES-Holding's President, Vasily Nikonov, General Director of Volzhskaya TGC, and Heinrich Wolf Otterpol, AEG CEO.

The 6-MW facility manufactured by AEG (Germany) started operations in 1931 at the Samara GRES. It was one of the oldest turbines that have been operating in Russia till now. After 1953, when data regarding power industry were declassified, and until now the turbine operated for 378,700 hours and during these years its rotor made about 68 billion revolutions.

As a result of the Russian power industry reform, IES-Holding, a major investor in the industry, became in 2008 a strategic shareholder of Volzhskaya Territorial Generating Company (VoTGC). As part of the large-scale program for modernization of generating facilities, the turbine was disassembled on July 1, 2008 and in 2009 a more powerful and modern facility will be installed in its stead.

VoTGC's representatives contacted their AEG colleagues and suggested that they preserve the disassembled turbine for the history. The German company undertook transportation of the turbine from Russia to Berlin where it will be displayed in the German Museum of Technology (Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin). The initiative was supported by IES-Holding, VoTGC's strategic shareholder.

"Although demounted equipment is usually used as scrap metal, we decided that we should preserve the memory of many generations of power engineering specialists who used this facility to generate light and heat for Samara residents. I believe that our gift to the German Museum of Technology will enable us to show abroad the highest operational skills of Russian power engineering specialists who managed to extend the service life of the turbine set almost threefold in comparison to the normative indicator," said VoTGC's General Director Vasily Nikonov.

"We were pleasantly surprised by news from Samara that a rare specimen of our products had still been operated in the Volga region. This is yet another reason for us to be proud of the high quality of our products. We are grateful to Russian power engineering specialists who operated our turbine so carefully that it became a absolute champion of longevity. No doubt, a turbine like this should be preserved for the history and we will finance its transportation from the "business trip" in Russia to the German Museum of Technology," said AEG CEO Heinrich Wolf Otterpol. "Modern turbines and other equipment manufactured by AEG are also distinguished by their high quality. AEG hopes that its mutually beneficial cooperation with the Russian power industry will continue", said Otterpol.

Specialists of the German Museum of Technology are also very enthusiastic about preserving this unique exhibit. "The turbine whose fate is so exciting will strongly enrich our collection. I believe that it will attract to the museum both German visitors and Russian tourists in Berlin. We are grateful to VoTGC's managers who agreed to hand over to us free of charge this valuable exhibit that shows the history of the development of power industry," said Joseph Hoppe, Deputy Director of the German Museum of Technology.