OREANDA-NEWS. January 06, 2011. In the epoch of new Revival Turkmenistan successfully implements large-scale projects of modernization and construction of gas turbine power plants, laying of power transmission lines, renovation of the power supply system in Ashgabat and other settlements throughout the country.

In 2010 drastic changes and fundamental modernization took place in the domestic power industry, as well as the entire country, to achieve new goals set by President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov to the sector. In the epoch of new Revival and great reforms further modernization of the power grid that outpaces its growing capacity and is capable to meet the needs of the dynamically developing national economy and demand in countries importing Turkmen electric power is ensured through putting power generation plants into operation.

Today, electric power is a universal product, without which modern industry cannot exist. Electric power guarantees reliable operation of equipment and machinery at enterprises, the communications, management and transport systems, light a myriad of lamps in towns and villages every evening. The electric power demand grows in Turkmenistan as the national economy develops, new plants are built, towns and settlements spring up as envisaged by the large-scale urban development programme implemented throughout the country. Moreover, the Turkmen power sector is one of the industries, which could bring substantial dividends to the country once its profound export potential is implemented effectively to fulfill grandiose tasks assigned to it. The use of advanced electrical technologies oriented towards our rich natural gas reserves makes power production and enhancement of power exports to foreign consumers a very profitable business.

The past year turned to be very rich in events essential for the advancement of the domestic power industry. During the visit of President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov to France the agreement on implementation of the project on “Enhancing Power Supply Reliability in Ashgabat” was signed between the Ashgabat Khyakimlik and the consortium of Enex and Schneider Electric on 2 February 2010 in Paris. This ambitious long-term project stipulates that the power supply system in the white-marble capital of our independent country will be upgraded.

This project will be implemented step by step – the first step will be the construction of the power supply ring around the Turkmen capital. For this purpose several substations and nearly a hundred kilometres of 220 kV power transmission lines will be built. Thus, power engineers will guarantee changeover of the power stations in Ashgabat, Ahal and Abadan. A total of hundreds of substations and transformer plants, over 500 kilometres of power transmission lines designed for the voltage ranging from 110 to ten volts and creation of an extensive street lighting network meeting energy efficiency standards will be built at the first project stage.

The second stage of the large-scale project of reconstruction of the power grid in the Turkmen capital provides for installation of 21,401 set of power switchboard in apartment houses and 2,300 km of 0.4 kV distribution cable lines supply electric power to apartments along with construction of new substations and power transmission lines. A complex of substations and 110 kV and less power transmission lines, 2,685 transformer plants and 800 km of 10 kV power transmission lines will be built at the third project stage. The supervisory control and data acquisition systems (SCADA) will be applied at all project stages. Thus, the power grid in Ashgabat including all links in power supply chain from producers to consumers will be modernized comprehensively in the near future.

Thus the reliability of electric power supply to the white-marble Turkmen capital, where the illuminations of new administrative buildings and offices, broad avenues and comfortable residential areas, industrial enterprises are lighted will be enhanced significantly.

Putting into operation of power supply facilities lays the groundwork for further development of the capital of the Turkmen state. Large-scale modernization of urban infrastructure is a new step to put the fundamental principle of the epoch of new Revival “a state for the people” into life.

Power supply network in other towns of the country will be modernized. The National Program of President of Turkmenistan on the improvement of social and living conditions in villages, settlements, towns in etraps and etrap centres for the period till 2020 provides for electrification of all regions of the country, including most remote, reconstruction of distribution networks, transformer plants and construction of more than 24,000 kilometres of power transmission lines in rural areas.

A complex of new white-marble buildings of the State Energy Institute of Turkmenistan opened the doors for students in Mary on 15 February 2010. President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov attended the opening ceremony. This comfortable town of knowledge with new buildings of administrative offices and lecture room, library, assembly hall, dining rooms, hostels designed for 1,000 students is built and supplied with state-of-the-art equipment and multimedia technologies in compliance with international standards.

Addressing the opening ceremony, the Turkmen leader said that the higher educational institution, which had moved to a new building, was to meet the demand of the rapidly developing power industry in highly qualified specialists and ensure that a qualitatively new, advanced level of professional education was achieved in the framework of current reforms.

The domestic power industry is based on firm traditions and advanced technologies. In early XX century the largest power station in Central Asia was put into operation in Turkmenistan. The turbines of the Hindu Kush hydropower station, some kind of museum on the Murghab River, produced electric power till. The successors of those first facilities are gas turbine power plants that are built today. The choice was made in favour of gas-turbine units not by accident. They are highly reliable and efficient in the regions with low available water supply. The first of these turbines were put into operation at the Abadan hydropower station, the similar generators were installed at the Turkmenbashi oil refineries, the Balkanabat power station, the Ashgabat hydroelectric power station and a number of other stations built recently.

The history of Turkmen power industry has never known such a breakthrough made by the sector in recent years. The groundwork for it was laid in 2007, when the Dashoguz gas turbine power plant with the capacity of 1.5 billion kilowatt-hours per year was put into operation. Since then, the country has seen a parade of energy premieres, and the year 2010 became a landmark in this respect in this regard.

On 14 February 2010, a significant event took place in Ahal Velayat a day before the aforesaid ceremony of opening the new buildings of the State Energy Institute in Mary. The Ahal gas turbine power plant with the capacity of 254 megawatts per year was put into operation in the vicinities of the Turkmen capital. The significant role of this energy facility in boosting the national economy was illustrated by the participation of President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov in the ceremony.

The ‘heart’ of the power plant is two General Electric gas turbines with the capacity of 127.1 megawatts each. There is the control board supplied with advanced computer systems and equipment produced by Siemens and other leading manufacturers in the main building of the Ahal power station.

State-of-the-art equipment and technologies used at the power station enable local specialists monitor and maintain effective operation of gas turbine and power distribution units with the capacity to produce 35, 110 and 220 kilowatt of electric power and operate a computer-aided gas station, which supplies treated and preheated natural gas to gas turbine units. As of today, technologies developed by the General Electric Company (US) and applied at this power station are most effective, safest and environmentally.

According to experts, the electric power demand of the population and enterprises of Ashgabat rises by 10 percent each year. As a result of putting the Ahal power station into operation electric power supply to the capital was increased thus guaranteeing trouble-free operation of the power system in rapidly growing Ashgabat and reliable electric power supply to the entire region for many years to come as well as enhancing the operating efficiency of the power grid of the country.

The Avaza power station with the capacity of 254 megawatts was put into operation in the Avaza national tourism zone on the Caspian Sea coast on 12 April 2010. The ceremony was attended by the Turkmen leader Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov. As this ultra-modern resort is expanding before our eyes, it needs more electric power. Furthermore, a new town will be built nearby the littoral town of Turkmenbashi in the near future, and therefore the location chosen for this power station is most optimal.

High-powered gas turbines and other state-of-the-art equipment and technologies from world’s leading manufacturers are installed at the Avaza power station. Each of these turbines equipped with automatic control units can operate almost independently; it needs ‘outside assistance’ only at the start-up stage. Nearly 1.5 megawatts is needed to drive a turbine. Current output of the generator is 6,000 amperes that ensures that electricity is transmitted to step-up transformer step-up transformers via special aluminium profile bus bars.

The power station is equipped with backup systems that ensure most reliable operation of power generation units. A microclimate maintained at the station optimizes the conditions for high-tech electronic equipment. This facility fully meets with international standards, including environmental standards. A 14.5 km gas pipeline was built and connected to a computer-aided gas distribution station to supply natural gas to turbines.

A silvery ‘forest’ of fabricated metal: distribution units – high-powered transformer substations connected via turbines to the power supply systems of Avaza, the maritime town of Turkmenbashi and the country sprang up nearby the administrative building of the power station.

The extended power system of the seaside resort looped three main substations and twelve local substations. Thus, the power grid in the littoral region includes the power supply network of the town and Avaza was connected to the power grid of the country.

On the day when this power station was put into operation a desalination unit and the artificial river with numerous cafes, restaurants with terraces, piers for boats and yachts and other facilities on its banks in Avaza, the new international airport in Turkmenbashi were opened.

A new bright page marking a critical step towards dynamic development of a promising sector of Turkmen economy such as the power industry was added to the country’s biography on 13 April 2010. The ceremonies of opening two new power generation units at the Balkanabat power station took place in the administrative centre of Balkan Velayat. Under this investment project amounting to over 137 million euros two power units with the capacity of 127.1 megawatts each was put into operation at the Balkanabat hydropower station, which had three gas turbines. As the result, the capacity of the power station tripled, and now it is 380.5 megawatts per year.

It should be noted that the new units were built for the country’s largest complex in a very short period of time; it took less than six months to install gas turbines and electrical equipment. The gas turbines weighing 2,130 tons were produced at the enterprises of the world-famous General Electric Company in Belfort, France.

Under the project along with gas turbines a number of facilities supplied with state-of-the-art electrical machinery and processing equipment manufactured for the most part in Germany, France and Turkey were built on the vast territory of the Balkanabat hydropower station with the area of over 80,000 square metres. These include a 35 kV enclosed distribution unit, which will supply electric power to power transmission lines. After eleven additional compartments at existing distribution units are assembled, new 220/110 kilovolt power transmission lines will be connected to the power station.

Once the Balkanabat hydropower station reaches the ultimate capacity, it will need 2.8 million cubic metres of natural gas a day. Natural gas will be supplied via an additional computer-aided gas distribution station with the capacity of 100,000 cubic meters per hour. Its main function is to maintain the necessary parameters of ‘blue fuel’ piped from the gas main.

In Turkmenistan, which ranks among the world’s energy producers, the use of natural gas to produce electric power is profitable in all respects. However, new power plants being built in the country can consume not only gas, but also diesel fuel. It is the technology that enables to ensure highly reliable operation of the power sector is applied at the Balkanabat hydropower station. Furthermore, the project provides for the construction of steam turbines there in the future, which will enable to produce 120 megawatts more. The station is computer-aided, and computer systems monitor and maintain effective operation of power generation units. Particular attention is paid to environmental and fire safety and comfortable work environment at the power station.

At present, the installed capacity of all power stations in Turkmenistan is 4,104 megawatts, of them 1,643 megawatts, or 40 percent are produced by gas-turbine generators. Such high-powered facilities have never been put into operation before in such a short period of time.

The geography of new-built power facilities brightly reflected the geography of the country. Since the power stations in Ahal, Balkanabat and Avaza were put into operation, the potential of Turkmen power industry had increased significantly and the electric power demand of Ashgabat and its vicinities, Balkan Velayat and other regions of the country was met for many years to come. It is planned to build a power plant in Lebap, a rapidly developing region, particularly the right bank of the Amu Darya River, where the electric power demand are going to increase significantly. The increase in power production will enable to transfer existing gas turbines to the combined cycle ad as a result increase the capacity of the power grid in Turkmenistan as high as 720 megawatts.

The effectiveness of existing steam-turbine plants will be increased significantly through fundamental. The first of the steam power units at the flagship of the domestic energy sector, the Mary power station was modernized in 2006. By 2020 the necessary work will have been completed at ten power generation units to increase electricity generation capacity as high as 645 megawatts. Thus, nearly all power generation facilities throughout the country will be built through advanced technologies and apply innovations increasing the production capacity of Turkmen power sector.

In September 2010, the Day of Power Engineers, which has a noteworthy place in the national calendar of professional holidays, was first celebrated in Turkmenistan. This fact testifies to the significant role assigned to this sector in the national economy and in the country. To enhance the potential of the power system is an urgent need and an adequate response to modern requirements.

The power sector development strategy stipulates that electric power production in Turkmenistan will have been increased up to 35.5 billion kilowatt-hours by 2030. To achieve this goal three gas turbine power plants with the combined cycle with the total capacity of 1,122 megawatts are to be built in the country. Construction of high-voltage transmission lines and substations will be continues to reduce energy losses.

In the future, the power grid of the country will be completely looped 500 kV overhead high-voltage lines, and 500 kV Balkanabat-Ashgabat-Mary high-voltage line have been built by 2020 that will ensure uninterrupted power supply to the eastern and western regions of Turkmenistan. A 220 kV ring power transmission line will be built to enhance reliability of power supply to the capital. The Parakhat-Pelvert-Atamurat line will be built in the near future to ensure reliable electric power supply to the right bank of the Amu Darya River. The 220 kV Mary-Tahtabazar power transmission line will be built to supply electric power to the deposits of Southern Yoloten, Gurrukbil, Garabil and increase electricity exports to Afghanistan.

Thus, in 2010 electric power production continued to grow thus enabling the country to increase electricity exports. Through accelerating the construction of power export transmission lines in recent years the power grid of Turkmenistan connected to several neighbouring states facilitates power exports. For that the country has enough power generation facilities, and the demand for Turkmen electric power is quite high in the region is high. As is known, Turkmenistan steadily enhances power export to Iran, Afghanistan and Turkey. It is planned to build power transmission lines that will enable to increase power supply to neighbouring countries.

In particular, with the view of enhancing Turkmenistan’s export potential the 400 kV high-voltage lines Mary-Mashad and Balkanabat-Gondbad will be built. New possibilities of power supply to neighbouring Iran and transit to Turkey will be opened up through implementation of this project. To this end the possibility for building a 500 kV power transmission line towards Afghanistan is explored. Through implementation of these ambitious plans our country will strengthen energy security and independence and increase productive efficiency of the domestic power sector as well as be able to integrate successfully in the global economic system.

International economic forums held on a regular basis in the Turkmen capital contribute to strengthening external economic partnership of the domestic power sector. The international exhibition on the “Key Vectors of Development of the Power Industry of Turkmenistan” was organized by the Ministry of Energy and Industry jointly with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Ashgabat in early October 2010.

This economic form became a significant contribution to developing international cooperation and a new step towards Turkmenistan’s integration into the global economy, attraction of foreign investment and advanced technologies to the industry. Fruitful meetings, new projects and proposals, exchange of views on the discussion platform provided by the energy forum are translated into new contracts and energy infrastructure facilities and promote mutually advantageous business relationships. This large-scale exposition aroused keen interest among experts, marketers, scientists and designers, energy specialists from our country and abroad. The exhibition was visited by thousands of visitors from the capital and regions.

The exhibition became an opportunity for foreign partners to offer innovations and latest technological solutions to the promising Turkmen market. The main thematic sections of the exhibition were devoted to new projects of construction and modernisation of power networks and electrical generating facilities, use of renewable energy technologies, Turkmenistan’s export potential, investment to the Turkmen power industry and development of cooperation. Abundant resources and the unique natural conditions in Turkmenistan – plenty of sun and the favourable wind regime – lay the firm groundwork for the use of advanced, environmentally friendly methods of power generation, particularly in remote regions of the country.

A notable event in the framework of the economic forum was the conference, which provided leading experts from different countries with an opportunity to exchange views on the prospects for developing the power industry in Turkmenistan. Turkmen specialists and scientists made the presentations of the successful experience gained in recent years. The conference covered the whole range of issues including construction and modernisation of power generation facilities, infrastructure development, distribution networks, implementation and cost-effectiveness of alternative energy. The exhibition in Ashgabat illustrated once again that Turkmen power engineers look into the future optimistically.

The three-day forum provided guests and participants with a splendid opportunity to learn about latest developments and know-how of world’s leading companies and Turkmen enterprises, technologies and innovations, which are at the forefront of engineering thought.

That machine building and construction subdivisions affiliated with the Ministry of Energy and Industry of Turkmenistan along with the Turkmenenergo State Energy Corporation contributes to developing the national industrial, meet the needs of various sectors in equipment and materials and build power facilities in a timely and proper manner.

The subdivisions of the Turkmenenergogurlushik State Concern are engaged in construction, repair and reconstruction of power plants, construction of transformer substations and power transmission lines and other facilities, manufcature of concrete and steel structures for the industry.

The Turkmenenergogurlushik State Concern is the industrial complex affiliating over a dozen of machine building plants manufacturing a broad range of products, which successfully replace imported analogues, for the domestic power and oil and gas industries and consumer goods. These enterprises ensure the complete production cycle from manufacture of cast bars and pressed parts, mechanical operations of all types to assemblage and testing of finished products. The Turkmenenergotaslama Institute is affiliated with the Ministry of Energy and Industry of Turkmenistan. Local specialists conduct design and survey activities in the fields of power and mechanical engineering, design of industrial plants, substations, transmission lines and distribution networks.

New power facilities in the business city centre developing rapidly along Archabil Avenue were put into operation in the Turkmen capital in October 2010. Foreign and Turkmen experts built the complex consisting of five power stations and high-voltage power transmission lines, which will ensure uninterrupted and reliable power supply the southern part of the capital and infrastructure for many years to come and lay the groundwork for its further development.

New facilities of the urban energy system are computer-aided and equipped with high-powered transformer units and telemechanic, communication and computer systems that control and transmit the data on performance parameters to the central control room. The Nar, Dagley and Gindivar substations built along Archabil Avenue are the main units of the power supply networks in this part of the city. The new substations, which reduce electrical voltage from 110 to 35 and 6 kV, are designed to supply electric power to future facilities in the southern part of the city and its new business centre where large-scale construction has been launched.

Turkmen power engineers are planning to develop further and modernize distribution networks to ensure reliable and uninterrupted electric power supply to many thousands of consumers in the country. Hundreds of millions of US dollars have been allocated for this purpose. The city is rapidly expanding, more new buildings including magnificent palaces, cultural centres, parks, social and industrial facilities are constructed. All these new buildings fully comply with modern standards, the status of the capital of the independent, dynamically developing state. The measures are taken to develop relevant infrastructure and, in particular, develop power networks, because as the city expands its power consumption rises and requirements to the quality of power supply increase.

The large-scale programme of expansion and modernisation of the power grid of the Turkmen capital is implemented in the framework of reforms initiated by President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov on the complex and systematic basis. Each of its stages provides for construction of power transmission lines, transformer substations, distribution networks designed to supply electric power directly to consumers including enterprises, organisations and citizens. Reliable and undisturbed operation of each section of this chain should be ensured through using latest engineering solutions and developments. However, new power systems with the adequate reserve capacity are initially designed to meet growing needs of the dynamically developing city.

In the new historical epoch all necessary measures are taken in Turkmenistan to foster development of strategic sectors. Through reforms initiated by President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, the domestic power industry demonstrates the steadily high growth rates. Power stations and power transmission lines are built, electricity exports to neighbouring countries is enhanced. Expansion of residential areas and an increase of enterprises in number with every passing year result in the growth of energy consumption. And the power industry of Turkmenistan that doesn’t stop at what has been accomplished fulfils new important tasks assigned to it in the epoch of new Revival and fundamental reforms.