Russian power plants have faced an increase in the failure rate of new import-substituted power equipment. "Childhood diseases" of turbines and boilers lead to failures, downtime, and large fines, although the regions need capacity without pauses. The problem was discussed at a "round table" in the Federation Council.
Industry representatives proposed returning the rule that exempts innovative power units from fines in the first 12 months of operation. Such a mechanism was in effect until 2017.
Currently, stations receive completely new equipment throughout the entire supply chain, so even modernized facilities show high failure rates for the first time.
The scale of the problem was confirmed by the head of the "System Operator," Fedor Opadchy. According to him, failures occur precisely after major updates.
We see that many stations, even modernized ones, have very high failure rates for the first time after replacing the turbine or boiler equipment. This is true.
A separate risk is energy-deficient regions. There, postponing the commissioning of capacities is impossible, and fines for deviations become critical for the economics of projects. Generators also ask to fix the phased achievement of environmental standards: domestic turbines are only reaching the required emission, noise, and vibration levels.
Another problem is service. The time between services for Russian turbines is shorter than for Western counterparts, and repairs take longer. As a result, the equipment is ready for operation about 70% of the time, compared to 95% for foreign installations. This increases costs and reduces power payments.