A gloating article appeared in the Western press that the construction of new power plants in Crimea actually stopped because of Western sanctions - after all, it’s as if we forgot how to make turbines for power plants ourselves and bowed to Western companies, which are now forced to curtail their operations due to sanctions supplies and thereby leave Russia without energy turbines.
“The project envisaged that turbines manufactured by Siemens would be installed at the power plants. However, in this case, this German engineering company risks violating the sanctions regime. Sources claim that in the absence of turbines, the project faces serious delays. Siemens officials have always said that they do not intend to carry out supply of equipment.
Russia studied the possibility of purchasing turbines from Iran, making changes to the project to install turbines Russian production, as well as the use of Western turbines previously purchased by Russia and already located on its territory. Each of these alternatives poses specific challenges, leaving officials and project leaders unable to agree on how to move forward, sources say.
This story demonstrates that, despite official denials, Western sanctions still have a real impact. negative impact on Russian economy. It also sheds light on the decision-making mechanism under Vladimir Putin. It's about about the tendency of high-ranking officials, according to sources close to the Kremlin, to make grandiose political promises that are almost impossible to implement."
"Back in October 2016, company representatives at a briefing in Munich reported that Siemens excludes the use of its gas turbines at thermal power plants in Crimea. We are talking about gas turbines that were produced in Russia at the Siemens gas turbine technology plant in St. Petersburg, which was put into operation in 2015. The shares in this company are distributed as follows: Siemens - 65%, Power Machines - beneficiary A. Mordashov - 35%. gas turbines 160 MW, and the contract signed in the spring of 2016 specifies a thermal power plant in Taman."
In fact, it so happened that since the times of the USSR, the production of gas turbine units for power plants has been concentrated at 3 enterprises - in what was then Leningrad, as well as in Nikolaev and Kharkov. Accordingly, with the collapse of the USSR, Russia was left with only one such plant - LMZ. Since 2001, this plant has been producing Siemens turbines under license.
“It all started in 1991, when a joint venture was created - then still LMZ and Siemens - to assemble gas turbines. An agreement was concluded on the transfer of technology to the then Leningrad Metal Plant, which is now part of OJSC Power Machines. The joint venture assembled 19 turbines over 10 years. Over the years, LMZ has accumulated production experience so that it can learn not only to assemble these turbines, but also to manufacture some components independently. Based on this experience, a licensing agreement was concluded with Siemens. for the right of production, sales and after-sales service turbines of the same type. They received the Russian marking GTE-160."
It is not clear where the developments that were successfully produced there over the previous 40 years went. As a result, the domestic power engineering industry (gas turbine industry) was left broke. Now we have to scour abroad in search of turbines. Even in Iran.
“The Rostec Corporation has agreed with the Iranian company Mapna, which produces German gas turbines under a license from Siemens. Thus, gas turbines produced in Iran according to the drawings of the German Siemens can be installed at new power plants in Crimea.”
The difficult international situation is forcing Russia to speed up import substitution programs, especially in strategic industries. In particular, to overcome dependence on imports in the energy sector, the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation are developing measures to support domestic turbine construction. Are you ready? Russian manufacturers, including the only specialized plant in the Urals Federal District, to meet the growing need for new turbines, the RG correspondent found out.
At the new Akademicheskaya CHPP in Yekaterinburg, a turbine manufactured by UTZ operates as part of the CCGT unit. Photo: Tatyana Andreeva/RG
Chairman of the State Duma Energy Committee Pavel Zavalny notes two main problems in the energy industry - its technological backwardness and the high percentage of wear and tear on existing capital equipment.
According to the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation, in Russia over 60 percent of power equipment, in particular turbines, have reached the end of their service life. In the Urals Federal District, in Sverdlovsk region There are more than 70 percent of them, however, after the commissioning of new capacities this percentage decreased somewhat, but still there is a lot of old equipment and it needs to be changed. After all, energy is not just one of the basic industries, the responsibility here is too high: imagine what will happen if you turn off the light and heat in winter,” says Doctor of Technical Sciences Yuri Brodov, head of the department of “Turbines and Engines” at the Ural Energy Institute of UrFU.
According to Zavalny, the fuel utilization rate is Russian thermal power plants- slightly above 50 percent, the share of combined cycle gas plants (CCGTs) considered the most efficient is less than 15 percent. Let us note that CCGT units were put into operation in Russia in the last decade - exclusively on the basis of imported equipment. The situation with Siemens’ arbitration claim regarding the allegedly illegal supply of their equipment to Crimea showed what a trap this is. But it is unlikely that the problem of import substitution will be solved quickly.
The point is that if domestic steam turbines Since the times of the USSR they have been quite competitive, but with gas the situation is much worse.
When the Turbomotor Plant (TMZ) in the late 1970s - early 1980s was tasked with creating a power gas turbine with a capacity of 25 megawatts, it took 10 years (three samples were manufactured, requiring further development). The last turbine was taken out of service in December 2012. In 1991, the development of a power gas turbine began in Ukraine; in 2001, RAO UES of Russia somewhat prematurely decided to organize mass production of the turbine at the Saturn site. But the creation of a competitive machine is still far away, says Valery Neuymin, candidate of technical sciences, who previously worked as deputy chief engineer of TMZ for new technology, and in 2004-2005, developed the concept of technical policy of RAO UES of Russia.
Engineers are able to reproduce previously developed products, creating fundamentally new speech doesn't work
We are talking not only about the Ural Turbine Plant (UTZ is the legal successor of TMZ - Ed.), but also about other Russian manufacturers. Some time ago on state level it was decided to buy gas turbines abroad, mainly in Germany. Then the factories curtailed the development of new gas turbines and switched mostly to the production of spare parts for them, says Yuri Brodov. - But now the country has set the task of reviving the domestic gas turbine industry, because it is impossible to depend on Western suppliers in such a responsible industry.
The same UTZ in last years actively participates in the construction of combined cycle gas units - supplies steam turbines for them. But along with them, gas turbines of foreign production are installed - Siemens, General Electric, Alstom, Mitsubishi.
Today, two and a half hundred imported gas turbines operate in Russia - according to the Ministry of Energy, they are 63 percent of the total number. To modernize the industry, about 300 new machines are required, and by 2035 - twice as many. Therefore, the task has been set to create worthy domestic developments and put production on stream. First of all, the problem is in high-power gas turbine plants - they simply do not exist, and attempts to create them have not yet been successful. So, the other day the media reported that during tests in December 2017, the last sample of GTE-110 (GTD-110M - jointly developed by Rusnano, Rostec and InterRAO) fell apart.
The state has high hopes for the Leningrad Metal Plant (Power Machines), the largest manufacturer of steam and hydraulic turbines, which also has a joint venture with Siemens to produce gas turbines. However, as Valery Neuymin notes, if initially our side in this joint venture had 60 percent of the shares, and the Germans had 40, today the ratio is the opposite - 35 and 65.
The German company is not interested in Russia developing competitive equipment - this is evidenced by years of joint work - Neuymin expresses doubts about the effectiveness of such a partnership.
In his opinion, in order to create its own production of gas turbines, the state must support at least two enterprises in the Russian Federation so that they compete with each other. And you shouldn’t develop a high-power machine right away - it’s better to first bring to life a small turbine, say, with a capacity of 65 megawatts, work out the technology, as they say, get your hands on it, and then move on to a more serious model. Otherwise, money will be thrown away: “it’s the same as entrusting an unknown company to develop spaceship, because a gas turbine is by no means simple thing", states the expert.
As for the production of other types of turbines in Russia, not everything is going smoothly here either. At first glance, the capacity is quite large: today only UTZ, as RG was told at the enterprise, is capable of producing power equipment with a total capacity of up to 2.5 gigawatts per year. However, the machines produced by Russian factories can be called new very conditionally: for example, the T-295 turbine, designed to replace the T-250 designed in 1967, is not fundamentally different from its predecessor, although a number of innovations have been introduced into it.
Today, turbine developers are mainly engaged in “buttons for a suit,” says Valery Neuymin. - In fact, there are now people at the factories who are still able to reproduce previously developed products, but the creation is fundamentally new technology there is no question. This is a natural result of perestroika and the turbulent 90s, when industrialists had to think about simply surviving. To be fair, we note: Soviet steam turbines were extremely reliable; a multiple safety margin allowed power plants to operate for several decades without replacing equipment and without serious accidents. According to Valery Neuimin, modern steam turbines for thermal power plants have reached the limit of their efficiency, and the introduction of any innovations into existing designs will not radically improve this indicator. But we can’t count on a quick breakthrough in gas turbine construction for Russia yet.
On October 24, Russian Gas Turbines LLC, a joint venture of GeneralElectric, Inter RAO Group and United Engine Corporation OJSC, opened a plant in Rybinsk, Yaroslavl Region, for the production, sale and maintenance of gas turbines of type 6FA (6F.03).
The first two units, intended for delivery to enterprises of OJSC NK Rosneft, will be assembled in 2015. The maximum production capacity of the enterprise will be up to 20 gas turbine units per year, which will satisfy the demand for highly efficient power units for projects combined production thermal and electrical energy.
In the Russian Gas Turbines project, GeneralElectric owns a 50% share, Inter RAO Group and UEC each have a 25% stake.
Investments of participants in the creation and development of production amount to 5 billion rubles.
2. But they say that they don’t produce anything in Russia. Even sanctions did not affect this project. 
3. Officials arrived to get acquainted with the enterprise and start production. 
4. They were given a tour of the enterprise. 
5. Official opening on an improvised stage in the factory workshop. 
6. CEO LLC "Russian Gas Turbines" Nadezhda Izotova. She stated that she expects to increase the localization of domestic components to 50% within five years, and Ron Pollett added that perhaps up to 80%. It follows from this that soon turbines will consist of 80% Russian materials, which involves the creation of new jobs and enterprises in Russia. 
7. Nadezhda Izotova, Chairman of the Board of JSC Inter RAO Boris Kovalchuk, President and Chief Executive Officer of GE in Russia Ron Pollett. 
8. Governor of the Yaroslavl region Sergei Yastrebov. 
9. The production of the 6FA gas turbine in Russia is a unique example of cooperation in the field of advanced technologies in power engineering. 
10. The 6FA turbine is a high-tech product whose combined cycle efficiency is more than 55%. 
11. The 6FA turbine is distinguished by high reliability, compactness, and the ability to operate on different types fuel, including in harsh climatic conditions, which determines the widespread use of 6FA in power generation, district heating and industrial cogeneration. 
12. Thanks to Russian Gas Turbines, Rybinsk, the second largest city in the Yaroslavl region, is becoming a center of world-class gas turbine construction. 
13. The construction of the plant opens up great prospects for the development of the region. The Rybinsk Aviation Technical Academy will become the supplier of personnel for Russian Gas Turbines. The company's staff will be about 150 people, 60 of whom have already started work. GE donated expensive equipment to the university to train students, which can be used to model turbines in detail and make more accurate calculations. 
14. Fleet of forklifts. 
15. Assembly shop of the plant. 
16. The opening of the plant will help create new jobs and increase the prestige of the engineering profession. 
17. At the initial stage, the annual production volume will be 14 units. The plant has already started assembling the first turbine. 
There are no more than ten enterprises producing gas turbines in our country. There are even fewer manufacturers of ground-based equipment based on gas turbines. Among them are Nevsky Plant CJSC, Saturn Gas Turbines OJSC and Perm Motor Plant OJSC (part of the UEC of Rostec Corporation).
In Russia, all conditions have been created for the rapid development of the market for land-based gas turbines, according to analysts at EnergyLand.info. The need for distributed generation based not on diesel fuel, but on more clean sources, everything is more relevant. There are almost no doubts about the effectiveness of combined-cycle plants.
However, there are no more than ten enterprises producing gas turbines in our country. There are even fewer manufacturers of ground-based equipment based on gas turbines.
In the Soviet Union, the emphasis was placed on coal, oil and other heating sources. Therefore, the first gas turbines were produced only in the 1950s. And primarily in relation to aviation construction.
In the 1990s, the development of power gas turbines began based on engines created by NPO Saturn for aircraft.
Today, the production of ground-based power equipment based on NPO Saturn engines is carried out by OJSC Saturn - Gas Turbines. The Perm Motor Plant has mastered the production of gas turbine power plants based on the developments of Aviadvigatel OJSC.
At the same time, the rated power of serial products of these enterprises on average does not exceed 25 MW. There are several machines with a unit capacity of 110 MW based on the developments of NPO Saturn, but today they are still being fine-tuned.
High-power turbines are supplied mainly by foreign companies. Russian enterprises strive to enter into cooperation with world leaders.
However, not all world leaders are interested in organizing the production of gas turbines in Russia. One of the reasons is the unstable demand for products. And it, in turn, largely depends on the level of energy consumption. Since 2010, energy consumption in Russia has grown steadily. But soon, according to experts, stagnation may set in. And the increase in demand in 2013-2014 will be only about 1% per year or even less.
According to Dmitry Solovyov, deputy chief designer of OJSC Saturn - Gas Turbines, similar reasons are holding back Russian companies from mastering the production of high-power gas turbines. “To produce powerful gas turbine units (GTUs), you need special equipment, large-diameter machines, vacuum welding installations with chambers of about 5 by 5 m,” he says. - To create such a production, you need to be confident in the sales market. And for this, the country must have a long-term program for energy development, perhaps then enterprises will begin to invest in modernizing the base.”
However, the absence of predictable prospects does not mean the absence of demand at all. There is certainly a demand. Both for turbines with a capacity of more than 150 MW, and for small gas turbine units that require less capital costs, but can fully cope with the issues of increasing energy efficiency and payback.
The growth of the sales market may be due to the development of regional energy and the commissioning of medium-capacity generating facilities. And gas turbines with a capacity of 4, 8, 16, 25 MW are a segment in which Russian manufacturers, who have already felt the market trend, mainly operate.
IN developed countries Low power cogeneration plants are commonplace. In Russia their number is still significantly lower. The main difficulty for companies supplying low-power turbines remains the insufficient solvency of potential customers.
Another traditional segment of the gas turbine market is generation facilities at oil and gas fields and gas pipelines. Gas turbine power plants make it possible to effectively utilize associated petroleum gas, solving not only the problem of energy supply, but also the rational use of hydrocarbon resources.
According to the observations of specialists from OJSC Saturn - Gas Turbines, in the pre-crisis years of 2006-2008 there was a surge of interest among oil workers in domestic gas turbines. Today this demand is at a stable level.
Modern trends in improving gas turbines are largely related to innovations for the oil industry. But not only. Challenges facing manufacturers:
- increased efficiency,
- reduction in the number of units in the turbine,
- increased reliability,
- reduction of maintenance volumes,
- reducing the duration of downtime during technical condition diagnostics.
The above can solve the problem of high cost of service.
In addition, the creators of turbines strive to make them unpretentious to the gas used and the ability to operate on liquid fuel
And in the West they are also concerned that, regardless of the composition of the gas, the turbine has good environmental characteristics.
A very important - promising - direction for improving gas turbine units is related to renewable energy sources (RES) and the prospects for the introduction of “smart grids”. Initially, gas turbines were created as equipment that provides constant power. However, the introduction of renewable energy sources into the energy system automatically requires flexibility from other generation facilities. This flexibility makes it possible to ensure a stable power level in the network when there is insufficient RES energy production, for example, on calm or cloudy days.
Accordingly, a turbine for a smart grid must easily adapt to changes in the network and be designed for regular starts and stops without loss of resource. This is not possible with traditional gas turbines.
Abroad, certain successes in this direction have already been achieved. For example, the new FlexEfficiency gas turbine is capable of reducing power from 750 MW to 100 MW and then ramping up in 13 minutes, and when used with solar power plants will have an efficiency of up to 71%.
However, in the foreseeable future, the most common way of using gas turbines will still remain their usual combination with steam turbines as part of combined cycle gas plants. In our country, the market for such cogeneration facilities is by no means complete and is awaiting saturation.
United Engine Corporation (UEC)- a company that includes more than 85% of Russian gas turbine equipment assets. Integrated structure producing engines for military and civil aviation, space programs, installations of various capacities for the production of electrical and thermal energy, gas pumping and ship gas turbine units. In total, more than 70 thousand people work at UEC. The company is headed by Vladislav Evgenievich Masalov.
Respondent: A. S. Lebedev, Doctor of Technical Sciences
— On June 18, a new high-tech plant for the production of gas turbine units was opened. What challenges does the company face?
The main task is the introduction of gas turbine technologies on the Russian market and the maximum localization of the production of large gas turbines with a capacity of 170, 300 MW for power plants operating in the combined cycle.
I would suggest taking a step back and taking a short excursion into history so that it is clear where we came from, how the joint venture between Siemens and Power Machines was organized. It all started in 1991, when a joint venture was created - then still LMZ and Siemens - to assemble gas turbines. An agreement was concluded on the transfer of technology to the then Leningrad Metal Plant, which is now part of OJSC Power Machines. This joint venture assembled 19 turbines over 10 years. Over the years, LMZ has accumulated production experience so that it can learn not only to assemble these turbines, but also to produce some components independently.
Based on this experience, in 2001 a license agreement was concluded with Siemens for the right to manufacture, sales and after-sales service for turbines of the same type. They received the Russian marking GTE-160. These are turbines that produce 160 MW, and in combined cycle units 450 MW, that is, this is essentially collaboration gas turbine with steam turbines. And 35 such GTE-160 turbines were manufactured and sold under license from Siemens, of which 31 were for Russian market. They are quite widely used in St. Petersburg, in particular, at the North-West Thermal Power Plant, at the Southern Thermal Power Plant, at the Pravoberezhnaya Thermal Power Plant, in Kaliningrad, in Southern Siberia, in Moscow 6 such turbines operate in combined cycle units. One can even say without false modesty that this is the most common gas turbine in Russian Federation to date. It is a fact. No one has produced such a quantity, such a series of powerful gas turbines.
And now, based on this experience co-production, a new agreement was concluded and a new joint venture, Siemens Gas Turbine Technologies, was created. This happened more than three years ago, in December 2011. Now we will produce turbines at our own plant. The tasks remain the same - to master production, achieve maximum localization and fit into the government’s development program for import substitution.
— So, in essence, you have become a competitor to the Power Machines?
When it comes to gas turbines, we are not competitors. Because Power Machines has been producing only steam and hydraulic turbines since 2011. The entire gas turbine business with engineers, with the continuation of contracts, was transferred to the joint venture by Power Machines. We are 35 percent owned by Power Machines and 65 percent owned by Siemens. That is, we, the entire gas turbine part of Power Machines, entered into this joint venture. In other words, we are business partners, not competitors.
— What is the differenceSiemens gas turbinesfrom domestic analogues?
In this power class, the only example of domestic products is the Rybinsk turbine NPO Saturn - GTD-110 with a capacity of 110 MW. Today this is the most powerful turbine of its own production in the Russian Federation. Turbines up to 30 MW based on the conversion of aircraft engines are quite widely represented in Russia. There is a very wide field for competition here, and Russian products are the main ones in this power class. There is no such competitive product in Russia today for large gas turbines. 110 MW is all that is available; today 6 such installations have been manufactured. The customer has certain complaints about their operation. Since this is, in a certain sense, a competitor, I would not like to comment on the results of its activities.
- Which latest developments you are using?
All possible developments by Siemens. We are an enterprise that is mainly owned by this corporation, as a result of which we have access to both the documentation and all the results of scientific research activities implemented in those gas turbines for which we have a license - these are 170 and 307 MW. Documents in the scope of production organized in Gorelovo are available to us without any restrictions; they allow us to introduce the latest developments.
Along with this, we ourselves participate in these developments. An example is our cooperation with Polytechnic University. The university is now divided into institutes, and the Institute of Energy and Electrical Engineering has the Department of Turbines, Hydraulic Machines and Aviation Engines, this is one of the divisions of the institute. We have agreements with this and one other department and conduct joint research activities. In one case, we are testing a gas turbine element—the outlet diffuser. Quite a lot of work has already been done within two years. interesting job at the stand. The stand, which we actually paid for and helped create.
At the same department, but in the hydraulic machines division, we are conducting another research work. Why on the subject of hydraulic machines? The fact is that gas turbines are equipped with hydraulic drives, and this very department has accumulated extensive experience in research on the drive of various elements. Elements that control the operation process of a gas turbine and hydraulic turbine. Moreover, for the sake of this cooperation, the department participated in a serious competition, where it defeated its main competitors from a Chinese university.
In addition to joint research work with these two departments, we also give lectures, try to support and train our staff while they are still students.
— Are your main customers Russian or foreign enterprises?
We have a license with the right to produce and sell in Russia and the CIS. By agreement with the main founder, Siemens Corporation, we can sell to other countries. And without any additional approvals, we sell gas turbines to Russian energy structures, these are Gazprom Energoholding, Inter RAO, Fortum and other owners of energy systems.
- In your opinion, what key difference organization of engineering work at your enterprise?
It seems to me that there are no fundamental differences from a Russian production enterprise. Probably because over the past 20 years, Russian enterprises have become a little similar to Western ones - Western management has appeared, borrowed management systems have been introduced technological process and quality. That is, there is no revolutionary difference felt.
But I would highlight two differences. The first is specialization, that is, an engineer is engaged in purely technical, more even creative activity. There is no such definite dispersion in the activities of an engineer as in a typical Russian enterprise, when he is used almost everywhere.
I will demonstrate with the example of engineering - there are at least three such engineering at Siemens: one basic engineering for a product, for example, for a gas turbine, where the gas turbine unit, all her insides, all her technical solutions, concepts are being implemented. The second engineering is service engineering, which deals with upgrades, revisions, inspections, and it does not create a new product. The third engineering can be characterized as technical solutions for system integration, which integrates the gas turbine into the plant equipment - all air preparation devices for its operation, fuel supply, gas facilities, which must be in connection with other elements of the power plant. And again, he is not creating a new product, but focusing on an area outside the main gas turbine.
Second fundamental difference our production is due to the fact that Siemens is a global company. And this is both good and difficult at the same time. In the global corporation Siemens, all procedures, rules, and regulatory documents must be universal for countries Latin America, Finland, China, Russia and other countries. They should be quite voluminous, quite detailed and they must be followed. And to this it is necessary to global company get used to many global processes and rules, spelled out in great detail.
— What role does participation in engineering forums, such as the Russian Engineering Assembly, play in the development of the enterprise? Are you planning to participate in the upcoming November event?
Yes, we plan to participate. We would like not only to declare ourselves, but that we are a company with developed engineering, a company that works with scientific institutions, and does its own developments together with Siemens. We would also like some kind of search for partners on topics of interest, for example, localization of production. We probably just don’t know about the opportunities that actually exist. We need to operate more with some kind of databases, be more flexible in finding subsuppliers, suppliers, materials, components, or vice versa, engineering services. Because now is such a difficult time, when you need to evaluate everything from an economic point of view, when you need to weigh again what you need to do yourself, and what services are better to purchase, while simultaneously assessing how profitable it will be not only in this moment, but also in the future. Maybe you need to make certain investments and in the future master some kind of production or services yourself. In order to acquire this outlook, participation in such conferences and meetings is very important. So we will definitely participate.
Zabotina Anastasia
