FGC has announced that Bulk Power Systems Centre (MES Centre), an affiliate of FGC UES, has started excavating the site for Russia’s first underground 220 kV substation, Skolkovo, which will supply electricity to the future innovation city of Skolkovo, located near Moscow.
As part of the innovation project, FGC will build 220/20 kV underground substations and bury seven 110-500 kV overhead power lines to supply power to the Skolkovo innovation city. Today, the protected zone for the 110-500 kV overhead lines located in Skolkovo takes up approximately 200 hectares of land. The project will free up around 180 hectares of land to accommodate the city’s infrastructure facilities.
A source at the grid company previously told RIA Novosti that the two 220/20 kV underground substations, Skolkovo and Smirnovo, that FGC UES is building in the Skolkovo Innovation Center area will be commissioned in September and December 2012, respectively.
The first phase of construction, which doesn’t include the removal of overhead power lines, is scheduled for completion in December 2011, followed by the disassembly of overhead lines in May 2012.
JSC Federal Grid Company UES was established as part of a programme to reform Russia’s electric power industry as sole managing operator of the Federal Grid Company, aiming to preserve and develop the grid’s capabilities. FGC UES has a variety of electric grid facilities in 73 regions of the Russian Federation. The company owns and operates 121,000 kilometres of power lines and around 800 substations with voltage ratings from 35 to 1,150 kV, whose total transformer capacity exceeds 305.5 thousand MVA. The government is the controlling shareholder of FGC.
Skolkovo Innovation Center should become Russia’s largest testing ground for a new economic policy. A specially designated area near Moscow will accommodate a city with exceptional conditions for research and development in different fields, including energy-efficiency, information, nuclear, space and biomedical technologies.