Rasim Khaziakhmetov,
Executive Director, NP “Gidroenergetika Rossii”
& Managing Director and Head of “Engineering” Business Unit,
OAO “RusHydro”, Russia
Galkin Alexander Andreevich
Head, Modern Hydro Power Technologies Group
High on the priority list for the power generation in Russia up till 2030 is increasing the use of modern technology, increased efficiency and environmental compliance of the Integrated Power System (IPS) of Russia.
According to the objectives that have been set out by the General Layout for Siting Power Industry Facilities Until 2020 (General Layout), one of the main aims is the development of the renewable sector, and specifically the hydro power sector, including tidal and small hydro.
The technology level of the Russian Hydro sector was developed in the second half of the twentieth century and, owing the high level of requirements during that period corresponds to today’s safety levels. On levels of efficiency however, the sector is not up to modern day, worldwide standards.
The existing technical regulation was developed in Soviet times for highly centralized and regulated economy model. After dramatic changes in governmental structure in Russia in the end of 20th century, the Soviet system for technical regulation lost its integrity and potential for development.
From 1991 to 2003, many statutory rights and legislature were passed, however these quickly became outdated and acted as an obstacle to technical advancement. It became increasingly obvious that there were discrepancies in the system of the technical regulation. Obligatory technical documents (for things such as government standards, sanitary and building rules that are necessary for all planning, construction and running of the plants) were in conflict with the reality of the rising market economy in Russia. This started the massive influx of high tech foreign technologies into Russia. The absence of flexibility on issues related to establishing new specific requirements for equipment and processing halted the development in all sectors of Russian industry, including the power supply sector.
Current technical regulations that were introduced as the Federal Law on Technical Regulations in 2003 were aimed at reaching a balance between economical and technical development goals. According to this Law, there are three levels of requirements.
Firstly, there is the Federal level – Technical Rules, which are fixed and obligatory throughout the Russian Federation to ensure safety. Each Technical Rule has the power of a Federal Law.
Secondly, there are the national standards – voluntary documents that set out requirements for implementation mechanisms of specific Federal Technical Rules. These implementation mechanisms are going to encourage the competition and stimulate business to increase reliability, quality and efficiency of production and goods.
The basis of these standards is the voluntary technical documents – Other Standards (OS), written by a corporation, union, trade association etc. in accordance with specific requirements for use by the Organizations. Concrete requirements for goods, production processes and technologies are defined in the OS. Development and use of these OS allows business-organizations a competitive advantage from the use of progressive techniques and technologies and increased efficiency, in compliance with safety and reliability requirements.
Unfortunately, due to various circumstances, the Federal Technical Rules and the National Standards for the electric power industry have not been accepted in Russia.
In these conditions, the power companies, primarily, System Operator (JSC “SO UPS”), National Grid Operator (JSC ” FSK UPS”), and the largest national generation company (JSC “RusHydro”), concentrate their efforts on implementing their own standardization programs.
These standards define the requirements for the IPS of Russia as an entire industry and, as a rule, become standards of all subjects of the IPS and, as a matter of fact, carry out the role of the national standards and the code of regulations.
The basic works on development of these new rules, in terms of technical regulation for hydropower sector, is being performing by RusHydro.
In RusHydro, the program of standardization has already been accepted and has been in place for several years. In 2010, RusHydro employed 15 standards of NP «INVEL» (Non-governmental Partnership «INVEL» is a major OS developer for the Russian power sector) and 3 standards of System Operator. It completed the development of two OS’s for RusHydro and started work for 14 OS´s for RusHydro. The total standardization program through 2012 comprises of another 45 separate standards.
The Governmental Standardization program for National Standards on renewable power resources development for the Technical Committee #330 has been formed in JCS «NIIES» a scientific institution to work with the Federal Agency on Technical Regulating and Metrology (Rostehregulirovanie – Russian technical regulation body). As a result there are 12 new national standards approved with another 21 in the Rostehregulirovanie-RES pipeline for the 2011.
Following the results to the investigation in to the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP disaster, there has been analysis in to the safety regulations by a specially created, interdepartmental, task force. The result of this has been amendments in 19 safety regulating Rules.
The system of planning, development, acceptance and actualization of the OS has also been clarified.
Currently, more and more hydro power companies in Russia are actively joining the process of standardization. As a result of this push for a more regulated industry the “concept for technical regulation in the hydro power sector” was proposed, and accepted, by the “Supervisor Council NP HydroPower of Russia” (the report № 6 from 12/16/2010).
The concept provides for the formation of a joint development program and acceptance of the OS’s and a uniform control system of the technical regulation progress in hydropower sector.
The organization chart for management of the technical regulatory system for water-power engineering should include the following basic levels of participation:
- Adjusting and coordinating bodies (the Ministry of power of the Russian Federation, the Center of standardization of the power sector and the other bodies providing development, introduction and application of documents):
- Clear definition of development priorities and directions in terms of technical regulation in the electric power industry,
- Approving legal documents with technical regulations
- Coordination of the day-to-day running of the technical regulatory system
- Development of the unified methodology and approaches to the technical regulations
- Introduction of the assessment system for the technical systems and compliance with aimed technical conditions
- Expert bodies (Technical regulation working groups at the Ministry of power of the Russian Federation, at the Center for standardization, and at the water-power engineering companies):
- Providing availability of expert advice on technical regulation for electric power industry at government, branch and company level.
- Companies developing the normative technical documentation:
- Organizing the development of normative and technical documentation with evaluation of its conformity to the requirements.
With a view to maintaining the development of the technical regulation system, programs ought to be formed on the state (programs for Technical Rules development) and industrial sectors (standardization programs). Therefore this proposed system of standardization should be synchronous with separate business issues and will eventually create a uniform regulatory field for standards in hydropower engineering.
The realization of this program will allow for the creation of a system of norms and requirements for technical regulation in hydropower engineering, and also the mechanisms for their application. This will help the state realize it priority in developing the power industry in Russia.
Looking at the long term development (lifecycle of a hydro power station is 50 years and more), any delay in implementing a new technical regulatory system could lead to a significant deviation from the power sector development plans (such as the General Layout, or Schemes and programs for the development of the Integrated Power System of Russia etc) and have a detrimental effect on the long term development prospects of the power sector in Russia.
