Serbia: HPP “Đerdap 2“, production plan exceeded by 15 percent

Published on 14. January 2015., News Serbia Energy

Despite encountering many problems in this year, hydro power plant “Đerdap 2” is completely ready for the upcoming winter days. All planned and unplanned works have been completed, said Ljiljana Milicanović, the director of HPP “Đerdap 2. Everything is ready for the upcoming cold days – says director Milicanović.

When she came to this position eight months ago instead of Jovan Milovanović, who took over the baton of the mayor of Negotin, there were doubting Thomases who thought that she would not meet the expectations and continue where her predecessor left. However, at the end of the year, when all results have been summed up, it can be concluded that HPP “Đerdap 2” has exceeded production plan by about 15 percent, and that the planned overhauls have been completed successfully and according to dynamic plan.

– HPP “Đerdap 2” has been faced with great temptations in 2014, which have been successfully dealt with – says Ljiljana Milicanović. – Here I am primarily referring to the challenges brought up by catastrophic floods in May and September. It’s been about large inflows of the Danube and the priority has been, besides the production, the preservation of not only settlements along the coastal area but also the facility itself from negative impacts of high waters. However, the vast amount of water in September has faced this hydro power plant with the largest challenges not remembered since the start of the construction. The facility has been in vital danger from two directions.

Firstly, drifts brought by the Danube in the form of large amounts of grass, earth, floating logs and various other plants have caused problems. The workers of HPP “Đerdap 2” have been struggling with drifts for days. However, nature has demonstrated its power when a huge floating island has arrived via the Danube and clogged intake screens of generators A4, A5 and A6. After unsuccessful attempts to clean intake screens of these generators, generator A5 has been stopped and extraction of the intake screen’s sixth sector has begun. Divers have found severe damage, after which the adjacent generators A4 and A6 have been preventively stopped. The next phase has been the extraction and the inspection of all intake screens on these three generators.
Meanwhile, in the additional power plant, a real drama has been taking place. Due to torrential waters from the surrounding hills, which have caused a penetration into this facility, generators A9 and A10 have been stopped as well.
– Owing to grand dedication of all employees, major material damage has been prevented, which would have occurred if water had further penetrated into the facility – proudly emphasizes Ljiljana Milicanović and does not forget to publicly thank all of them for their dedication – when it was needed the most, in trouble.

After preventing further penetration of water, quick cleaning has started, so that water, using pumps and engagement of people, would be drained from power plant. After checking the insulation resistance of rail links, detailed examinations of all systems have started. Generators A9 and A10 have firstly been put in idle operation for a while, and after only two days they have been synchronized in the network.
We have worked day and night, because we know that Serbia needs every kilowatt-hour with respect to flooded open pit mines. We needn’t explain that particularly to any worker – says Milicanović. – Because of everything that has happened, we’ve had to do the emergency overhaul of A5, within which very demanding works have been performed in terms of replacing the damaged intake screen. The work referring to replacement has been done with the help of divers, while cleaning and cutting underwater at the same time. This complicated procedure has been performed in collaboration with Romanian partners, because the access has been possible from that side. Due to the oversize dimensions of the cargo, a complicated interstate procedure had to be gone through.

Stopping the generator A5 has been used for thorough cleaning of the flow tract and interspaces. Electricians have been working on the revision of the excitation and regulation system. In parallel with this, the works on generator A2 have also been in progress, because, according to words of Ljiljana Milicanović, at no point has there been a deviation from the planned overhauls. The capital overhauls of generator A1 have been realized, and the operational readiness within A2 has been increased as well, and excitation system has been reconstructed within A9. Within the generator A5, a block of transformers has been replaced and the reconstruction of switchgear, 6.3 KV has been done. The overhaul of A10 is coming to an end, thus the other Danube power plant is completely ready for the predicted cold days.