Fire at Novocherkasskaya GRES will not affect electricity prices in the region

The June 14 accident at a large power plant in Novocherkassk, which supplies energy to the Rostov region, may not have a significant impact on energy prices, analysts say. During the extinguishing of the fire, all units of the station were turned off, and the remaining 364,000 consumers without electricity were powered again in a few hours. Commissioning by the System Operator of stations from the cold reserve to compensate for the shutdown of the Novocherkasskaya GRES may even lead to lower prices in the coming days.

The fire at the Novocherkasskaya GRES in the Rostov region on June 14 is unlikely to have a significant long-term impact on the wholesale price of electricity in the region. At the station, according to the local Ministry of Emergency Situations, at 13:41 the roof of the sixth power unit caught fire, the fire area was about 200 square meters. m, by 16:26 Moscow time the fire was extinguished. The station was completely shut down for the duration of the extinguishing. Three people were injured.

After the shutdown of the power units of the Novocherkasskaya GRES, the price of electricity on the balancing market (BR) in the Rostov region at 16-17 hours Moscow time amounted to more than 2.9 thousand rubles / 1 MWh, having briefly increased by about 1 thousand rubles, the analytical company notes SCM Market Predictor. Then BR prices went down. Prices on the day ahead market (DAM) in the Rostov region as of June 15, according to the Trading System Administrator, increased by 13.8% to 1.66 thousand rubles. for 1 MW•h. In general, in the first price zone, the growth was 3%, up to 1,546 thousand rubles.

“The station carried a load of 790 MW, and the volume of the hot reserve in the IPS of the South is 900 MW, which should be enough to compensate for the falling power units. The “system operator” is likely to start deploying equipment from the cold reserve, the volume of which in the UES of the South is 3.8 GW, and in the first cent zone – 21.9 GW. Launching plants from the cold reserve can even lead to lower prices, as was the case in 2009 after the accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station, when the System Operator launched a large amount of thermal power plants to replace the station,” say analysts at SCM Market Predictor.

Novocherkasskaya GRES is one of the largest thermal power plants in the south of the Russian Federation and the second largest in the Rostov Region after the Rostov NPP. Part of OGK-2 (owned by Gazprom Energoholding). The installed electric capacity is 2.25 GW. It consists of nine units, powered by gas and coal.

At the time of the accident, there were four units in operation. Their disconnection led to a disruption in power supply in Novocherkassk and Rostov-on-Don: according to the administration of the Rostov region, 364 thousand consumers faced interruptions. The “System Operator” reported that “the necessary scheme and regime measures have been implemented in the power system to ensure the possibility of increasing power flows to the power district where Novocherkasskaya GRES is located.” By 17:20, according to the “System Operator”, all consumers were connected.

The cause of the accident, according to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, was “the release of a gas-air mixture with subsequent combustion during scheduled work.” The governor of the Rostov region, Vasily Golubev, said that information about the explosion before the fire at the state district power station was not confirmed.

In recent months, Ukrainian drones have repeatedly attacked industrial facilities in the south of the Russian Federation, including oil refineries in the Rostov region and the Krasnodar region.

It is not yet clear how quickly the state district power plant will be able to start the stopped power units, except for the sixth, which could have been damaged by a fire. OGK-2 reported that they were conducting an inspection of the infrastructure and equipment and “based on its results, which we expect to receive in the shortest possible time, a decision will be made to resume the operation of a number of power units of the station.” Vasily Golubev said on June 14 that “the commissioning of the disconnected power units will be carried out in stages around the clock.”

Polina Smertina