The decision to dismantle the 500 kV overhead line in the Tyumen region was approved by the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation

JSC Rosseti Tyumen has selected a contractor for the demolition of the Vityaz-Irtysh power line, which is located between Tobolsk and Ishim. According to the press service of the Rosseti structure, which operates in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, the Tyumen Region and the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, we are talking about the unfinished 500 kV overhead line Tobolsk – Ishim.

“The dismantling of the unfinished construction facility is planned in pursuance of the decision of the minutes of the meeting at the Russian Ministry of Energy. According to the procurement documentation, the work must be completed by the contractor before the end of 2024,” the company said, without specifying when exactly the creation of the long-term infrastructure project started and for what reason the expensive work on its construction was not completed.

Photo: Rosseti Tyumen

Back in August 2013, at that time, the governor of the Tyumen region, Vladimir Yakushev, signed a government order, according to which a scheme and program for the development of the region’s electric power industry for 2014-2018 was approved. According to the document, in order to create an intersystem connection between the UES of the Urals and the UES of Siberia, the investment program of JSC FGC UES (currently PJSC Rosseti) planned to create a 500 kV substation “Vityaz” (Ishim). For this purpose, power engineers expected to build a 500 kV wing on the 220 kV Zarya substation existing in Ishim. The new object was to be named “Vityaz”. After this, the 220 kV Irtysh-Zarya overhead line (the current name of the Vityaz-Irtysh overhead line) was intended to be modernized and transferred to a rated voltage of 500 kV.

According to the decree of the government of the Tyumen region, Rosseti Tyumen (at that time Tyumenenergo) planned to complete work on improving the Ishim energy hub by the end of 2014, but the process was not completed. On the official information disclosure portal in July 2017, power engineers reported that the issue “On consideration of the General Director’s report on the implementation of the 500 kV Tobolsk – Ishim overhead line project in the 2nd quarter of 2017” (dispatch name “VL 220 ( 500) kV Irtysh – Vityaz (Zarya).” Accordingly, at that time the implementation of the investment project continued.

Moreover, in 2017, Rostekhnadzor tried to hold Tyumen network operators accountable for violating the “Rules for the technical operation of power plants and networks of the Russian Federation” when operating transformers on the 500 kV Tobolsk-Ishim overhead line. Tyumenenergo challenged the supervisory authority’s order, saying that the facility is not used for transmitting electricity because its construction has not been completed.

In the summer of 2017, the company Alfa EMS LLC reported that, at the request of Uralzhilstroy LLC, it carried out an inspection of the condition of the electrical part of the Tobolsk – Ishim overhead line of Tyumenenergo JSC. “The route of the line, 265 km long (686 supports), passes through hard-to-reach wetlands of the Tyumen region. It was possible to carry out the inspection only by moving along the overhead line on TROM-8 snow and swamp-going vehicles,” representatives of the subcontractor described the location of the line.

In September 2019, the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation, chaired by Deputy Minister Andrei Tcherezov, held a meeting “On the further operation of the 500 kV Tobolsk – Ishim overhead line,” at which the future fate of the long-term construction was decided. According to the ministry, the 500 kV Tobolsk – Ishim overhead line was not put into operation “due to its non-compliance with the new requirements of the NTD in design and actual solutions.” “Decommissioning of the 500 kV Tobolsk – Ishim overhead line will lead to the loss of the backup path for the passage of emergency signals and commands of PA devices. Based on the results of the meeting with Deputy Minister A.V. Cherezov. a conclusion was made on the need to build a new overhead line to replace the dismantled one,” says an extract from the minutes of the meeting, presented as part of the legal dispute between Tyumenenergo and Rostechnadzor.

It is worth noting that this is far from the only expensive project from the FGC UES investment program, the implementation of which was never completed in the Urals Federal District. Industry experts cite the 220 kV Nadezhda substation, which was supposed to be built in Yekaterinburg, as one of the most striking examples. About a billion rubles were invested in the development and correction of project documentation, but the construction of the substation never began ^[1].

In the case of the Tyumen long-term construction project, the size of investments in the project is not disclosed. At the same time, the cost of dismantling the high-voltage line will exceed 1.9 billion rubles. The procurement was carried out in the format of a request for quotations based on the results of the preliminary selection for the right to conclude framework agreements for the dismantling of electrical grid facilities of JSC Rosseti Tyumen in 2023-2025. Three companies were applicants for the order: Yugraenergostroy LLC (KhMAD), Systemlink LLC (Belgorod) and Network Energy Solutions LLC (Moscow). Preference was given to the last company that offered the most favorable price for the required amount of work.

Photo: Alpha EMS

Previously, the company did not work for the electrical grid facilities of Rosseti structures under direct government contracts. The order portfolio includes only 3 relatively small contracts for repair work at the site of state-owned enterprises in Moscow and the Moscow region. The company received the latest contract “Technical re-equipment and reconstruction of the experimental research complex” for 26 million rubles from the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation back in September 2018. True, before this the company was still called “Domus Optima” and was headed by Oleg Volchok. In April of this year, the legal entity changed its owner, manager and name. Currently, the business is owned by Dmitry Savelyev.

It is worth noting that cooperation with controversial contractors has already become a reason for disrupting the investment program of Rosseti Tyumen ^[2]. In addition, several top managers of the Rosseti subsidiary became involved in criminal cases of corruption or receiving bribes on an especially large scale. The reason for the intervention of the security forces was precisely the relationship between the state company and contractors. Managers received large tranches from partners “for obtaining contracts, signing executive documentation and timely payment for work performed” ^[3].

pravdaurfo