OREANDA-NEWS. EuroSibEnergo, Russia’s largest privately-held power producer and a part of En+ Group, unveiled a $200mln-worth modernization program of its Siberian hydropower plants (HPPs) on the Angara and Yenisei rivers that will boost annual power output by 1.5 bln KW.

New Energy, a complex modernization program of Krasnoyarsk, Bratsk and Ust-Ilimsk HPPs, includes areplacement of the plants’ hydraulic components, 12 turbine runners, generator transformers and switchgear. It will boost the dams’ annual power output by 1.5 bln KW without increasing the amount of hydro resources in use. The company has invested 15 bln rubles ($200 mln) of its own money to the program.

Modernization that is to be completed by 2018, will be equal to the construction of a new 400 MW hydropower facility. It will help to partly substitute energy generated by coal-fired plants and will save up to 800,000 tons of coal per year. The newly revamped HPPs will allow to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2mln tons per year what will improve ecological situation in Siberia.

EuroSibEnergo will mainly use home-made equipment to upgrade its HPPs. Saint Petersburg-based Power Machines, one of Russia’s largest producers for hydro, thermal, gas and atomic power stations, will supply new turbine runners and high voltage transformers for Krasnoyarsk and Ust-Ilimsk HPP.

After the modernization program is completed, EuroSibEnergowill continue to upgrade Irkutsk HPPs. New turbine runners and technologically advanced improvements will increase the plant’s capacity five-fold from 160 MW to 822 MW.