OREANDA-NEWS. Today, the start-up ceremony for the 330 kV energy ring has been held in St. Petersburg. The largest investment project of Federal Grid Company will ensure the energy balance and high reliability of power supply to the northern capital. Since 2006, the volume of investments into the project implementation has amounted to RUB 32.3 billion.

Speaking at the ceremony, St. Petersburg Governor Georgy Poltavchenko emphasized the importance and the scale of the work carried out by Federal Grid Company in order to enhance the reliability of the city's power supply system and create conditions for the development of the city's economy and social sector.

Chairman of the Federal Grid Management Board Andrey Murov congratulated the audience on the successful implementation of the project, stating: “Today, large-scale social and industrial construction is taking place in Russia. The back-bone electric grid complex, in its turn, is mobilizing all the resources in order to facilitate timely economic development in the country's regions. Commissioning of the energy ring in St. Petersburg is one of the major events of this year, which will ensure a new, significantly higher level of reliability, security and efficiency of the power supply system of this city.”

The Chairman of the Management Board of Federal Grid Company also stated that the company plans on building the external energy ring that will lessen the load of the grids in the central districts of St. Petersburg. The project provides for the construction of 67 km of direct current lines with 41 km of an underwater section along the bottom of the Gulf of Finland.

With the support of the St. Petersburg government, Federal Grid Company carried out large-scale complex reconstruction of four 330 kV substations - Vostochnaya, Volkhov-Severnaya, Zavod Ilyich, Severnaya and construction of 95 km of three new cable and two overhead power transmission lines. In the course of the construction, a unique engineering project was implemented. It involved laying of the underground cable power line Severnaya-Vasileostrovskaya 16.3 km long, with a 4 km long section along the bottom of the Gulf of Finland, from the shore of Vasilyevsky Island to the Lakhta settlement.

The event was attended by Vice-Governor of St. Petersburg Vladimir Lavlentsev, Chairman of the Energy and Engineering Support Committee of St. Petersburg Andrey Bondarchuk, Director General of the Federal Grid branch “MES of North-West” Valery Ageyev and other officials.