OREANDA-NEWS. December 07, 2009. In December 2009, the RUSELPROM concern starts to  develop energy kits for installation on mini hydropower stations with unit capacity of up to 1 000 kWt. The volume of investment in the product development and testing will amount to about 20 mln rubles, reported the press-centre of RUSELPROM.

Key consumers of the new product should be companies with energy intensive operational processes with necessary hydro energy resources (mini hydro power stations building are mainly supposed to be erected on hydro power constructions with an appropriate altitude difference) trying to cut expenditure on energy purchases. They include water and waste water treatment plants, mining, metallurgical companies, etc. The expected recuperation period for consumers is between one and three years.

The RUSELPROM concern has signed an agreement with the Moscow Power Engineering Institute (technical university) to work on the hydro energy project. The cooperation between the country’s largest electric machine building corporation and the leading specialized Russian institute is supposed to help use the scientific potential of the project more efficiently and introduce science intensive technologies in the energy industry.
 
The scientific inquiry and the mini hydro power station technological process modeling will be done together with specialists from the hydromechanics and hydraulic machines department of the Moscow Power Engineering Institute (technical university). The practical development of the new product will be done at the Vladimir Technological Institute of Electric Machine Building (NIPTIEM), which makes part of the RUSELPROM concern.

“The erection of this type of hydro power stations helps increase efficiency and safety of power  supplies, help solve the problem of energy sources reservation and diversification,” says Ilya Satin, RUSELPROM concern project manager. “Such constructions are key in energy generation and supplies in isolated and hard to get regions.”

Small scale hydro power generation is widely used in Western Europe and the United States. It was also actively developed in the 1950-60s in the Soviet Union but works in the area were curtailed in favor of big scale power generation.

“While developing the new concept, we count on an inflow of new investment in energy efficient technologies and renewable energy following government initiatives on energy safety, energy conservation and technical modernization,” said Sergei Perevoshchkov, director of the integrated solutions department of the RUSELPROM concern. “Given the concern’s experience in supplying hydro energy equipment in Russia and abroad, we are aiming at the creation of a competitive product which will be in demand both in Russia and abroad,” he added.