Thursday, May 18 2017 17:19

ArmInfo. Armenian AEP has a  determined role for NPP Armenia, Karen Harutyunyan, Armenian NPP  General Director stated to ArmInmfo reported. 

According to him, if the plant stops working for 15-20 days, the  company gets energy power  from thermal generation facilities at an  expensive price tariff. As a result, the financial resources of the  networks instead of getting profit are directed to the solution of  this problem. "In short, AEP functioning is very important for the  company, "Karen Harutyunyan said, expressing hope that the policy  implemented by the Armenian Government and Rosatom will be  favorable  for the company.

He also pointed the importance of stopping the station for scheduled  preventive outage  and refueling in May-July, when  there are no  problems with water in the Republic, and there is an opportunity to  purchase energy  from hydropower facilities. Besides, in order to  replenish the capacity of NPP, stopped from May 10 to carry out  repairs, energy supplies will be implemented  from neighbor Georgia.  "The stop time of the Armenian Nuclear Power  Plant  for scheduled  preventive outage  and fuel refueling was chosen not accidentally, it  was done to  minimize pressure on the tariff for terminal  users.  Everything is done for the repair work at nuclear power plants, which   share in the country's total energy  power balance is  about 30%, to  be  implemented with maximum efficiency, "- NPP General director  stressed.

In his turn, Armenian Energy network JSC Directors Board chairman  Karen Darbinyan reminded that thanks to implemented work on the  plant, the term of N2 energy bloc exploitation of AEP will be  prolonged for 10 years. And that means stable energy processing for a  long period on available price. To recall, on May 10 AEP is stopped  for the term of 60 days to implement scheduled preventive outage and  refueling. Within these works events will be held to prolong N2  energy bloc exploitation term. 

Earlier, during his interview with ArmInfo correspondent, AEP N2  energy bloc term prolongation works head said, that a  considerable  amount of work will be carried out during the preventive maintenance.  The main focus will be put on the safety of the nuclear power plant:  works related to the repair of equipment will be performed, as well  as work on instrumental inspection of equipment. The repair of the  equipment will be assisted by employees of the Kolskaya and  Novovoronezh nuclear power plants - they are the ?twinning? stations  of the Armenian NPP, scientific management will be carried out by JSC  TsNIITMASH, an industrial enterprise of the Rosatom. As for the  instrumental survey, the main task of this exercise is to calculate  and confirm the residual life of the equipment using non-destructive  testing methods. In simple words, it is necessary to check the  possibility of further operation of NPP equipment. As you know, there  is a lot of equipment on the NPPA, so the instrumental survey is  distributed for several years, without compromising the safety and  operation of the NPPA. Last year, we started this process; this year  the volume of the surveyed equipment increased by 50% compared to  last year (150 types of equipment) at the request of the supervisory  authority. We hope to finish the instrumental survey process next  year and in 2019. Transfer calculations and conclusions to the  supervisory authority - the State Committee for Nuclear Safety  Regulation. We hope to finish on time, but everything will depend on  the results of the survey and the decision of the Gosatomnadzor.  On  30 Sept 2015, Tashir Group headed by Russian businessman of Armenian  origin Samvel Karapetyan and Inter RAO signed an agreement of  purchase and sale of electric power assets of the Russian energy  holding in Armenia - ENA CJSC and Hrazdan TPP. The reason of the sale  was the public discontent about the ungrounded growth in electricity  prices by approximately 16.7% (6.93 AMD per 1 kWh). The Public  Services Regulatory Commission's (PSRC) decision to raise the tariff  sparked protests and the Armenian authorities agreed to audit both  the expediency of PSRC's decision to raise the tariff and the  activities of the Electric Networks. In addition, the authorities and  Tashir Group took a decision to subsidize on a parity basis the  raised tariff for the households and SMEs until the audit is  completed. Since August 1, 2015, the daytime tariff for households  (from 7 am till 11 pm) has been 48.78 AMD per 1kWh, while the  nighttime tariff has been 38.78 AMD per 1 kWh.