The Northern Network Route

The participants in the selection for the CASE-IN championship solved the problems of the Yamalo-Nenets District's energy system.

All means are good for the development of the Arctic. In this area, attention is being paid to the proposals of young professionals, students, and schoolchildren. At least they are considered for The International Engineering CASE-IN Championship which runs in six areas – from mining to petrochemistry. The participants of the qualifying stage of the Student league in the electric power industry, for example, had to decide how to ensure reliable operation of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug's energy system. Correspondent of "Siberian Power Engineering" Egor SHCHERBAKOV Together with a competent jury, I was convinced that some of their suggestions could be adopted by professionals with many years of experience.

• This year, the CASE-IN solved the problem of ensuring reliable operation of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District's energy system.

• The order of the teams' performances was decided by the draw, which was conducted by the chairman of the jury Roman Rusanov.

• Siberian Team, which rounded out the top three

• The winning team in the company of the Head of the Faculty of Energy IrNITA Vadim Fedchishin

The quality of solving cases – real business problems – in the sixth year of the championship's existence is no longer surprising. Therefore, the participants of the qualifying stage try to bring something new to the presentation. "Do you remember there was a guy in Logan who turned on a light bulb and controlled the electricity? – the captain of the Siberian Team was interested Alexander Evseev They visited their friends a few minutes before the start of the championship at the Irkutsk National Research Technical University. – I should have taken himAn hour and a half later, it turned out that the Siberians had decided to do without superpowers: their Instagram account was the highlight."In addition to calculating the case, we have set ourselves the goal of popularizing science in general and energy in particular. Evseev explained . – This was how we covered the progress of our project.».

Permafrost, winter and gas

The team played last, the eighth in a row. The order of presentations was determined exactly the same as a year or two ago: the chairman of the jury, who this time was appointed head of the Department of Business Process Management and Standardization of JSC Irkutsk Electric Grid Company Roman Rusanov He took out a piece of paper with the name of the team from a cardboard box. The task for the participants of the selection in the student league (schoolchildren, students of technical schools and colleges, and young specialists also compete in separate classes) was distributed in advance, so they only had to present its solution. This took six minutes (penalty points for exceeding the limit), and it would take another three to five minutes to answer the experts' questions.

The theme of the 2018 championship was the development of the Arctic in six industries. The electric power industry, in particular, needed to figure out how to solve the accumulated problems in the energy system of the Yamalo-Nenets Okrug, the main region for the development of the Arctic. The terms of the task can be found in open sources. The territory of the Tyumen region with an area of 769.3 thousand square kilometers with a population of 536 thousand people is given. The climate, which is critical for the operation of electric networks, is sharply continental, it is also influenced by permafrost, the proximity of the cold Kara Sea and its deep–flowing bays, an abundance of swamps, lakes and rivers. Winter lasts for about eight months, and the average temperature for the year is 10 degrees Celsius below zero.

At the same time, the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug accounts for four–fifths of Russia's natural gas production - 554.7 billion out of 667.8 billion cubic meters, according to official domestic statistics for 2017. It is used primarily for energy generation. Natural gas accounts for 92% of electricity generation and 77.5% of heat production. It also operates large centralized generating facilities – the Urengoyskaya GRES at 529.7 MW and the Noyabrskaya combined-cycle power plant at 119.57 MW. The first one is located in the Northern Energy District of the district. Excess electricity from it is supplied to the Noyabrsky district, where the second one is located. The power supply centers of the Northern District are six 220 kV substations that connect 16 power transmission lines of the same voltage class with a length of 1,340 km. Noyabrsky, in turn, includes three 500 kV substations and 11 220 kV substations, the total length of the transmission line is 530.2 and 452 km, respectively.

The networks operate in extremely difficult conditions: strong winds and regular cyclones should be added to permafrost and cold weather, which are especially pronounced during the transition seasons and at the beginning of winter. As a result, only from 2012 to 2017, 1208 technological violations were recorded in networks with a voltage of 110 kV and above. 1,155 of them occurred on power lines, 53 at substations. Thunderstorm shutdowns of overhead lines prevail. They caused 112 accidents out of 172 that occurred last year. Another 30 outages were caused by short circuits when the wires came together and the insulation was blocked. Apart from accidents, the nature of which is not clear, in 2017 there were also 13 cases of broken wires and 12 cases of falling poles. The reason for the latter often lies in the heaving of the soil: the moisture that gets into it, when frozen, simply tears the soil. Power transmission poles rarely live longer than five years in such conditions.

Like in Dubai, but in the Arctic

Some have focused on how to prevent damage that is exotic in our latitudes. «We offer a very interesting solution to this problem. In particular, the captain of the GET team told Tatiana Rasputina, a second-year student at the Institute of Energy of IRNTU. – Let's take the construction of the foundation in Dubai as a basis. Construction is also very difficult in this area, because the foundation is unmanageable soil and sand. Therefore, the people of Dubai are building on a powerful pile foundation. It was this method that prompted us to develop our own version of the foundation for substations and power transmission lines.».

From a technical point of view, it doesn't look too complicated. Piles pass through movable layers of soil and rest against solid layers. For additional rigidity, they are connected by beams. The basis for this is a reinforced concrete frame. In order to prevent moisture from entering, a layer of bitumen is applied to it, which, in turn, is covered with clay. The gaps between the piles and the frame are filled with concrete, gravel is poured inside the entire structure, and it is covered with a reinforced concrete slab on top. The depth of the foundation is 5 m, the length of the piles is 5.5 m. The production of such a structure requires 156 cubic meters of reinforced concrete, 75 cubic meters of gravel of two different fractions and 25 cubic meters of concrete.

– Please summarize, you already have time. The presenter , a representative of the organizing committee of the International Engineering Championship CASE–IN , interrupted the presentation . Dmitry Serdyukov.

– Strongly? Rasputin replied. – I can't help but tell you in detail. We can't.

There aren't many details left. For example, the price of such a solution: according to the calculations of the students, the foundation of their proposed structure will cost 678.5 thousand rubles. It will cost another 5,250 rubles to install a lightning rod on each power line support. The price of a cable lightning rod for a substation is 1 million 156 thousand rubles. "Detailed elaboration is felt", – said the Director of the Institute of Energy of IRNTU Vadim Fedchishin when the floor was given to the experts. His colleagues from the jury, noting the originality of the decision, discussed its high cost on the sidelines for a long time. And one of them is a senior researcher at the Department of Energy Security at the L.A. Melentyev Institute of Energy Systems SB RAS. Dmitry Krupenev – he gave his verdict during the presentation: "From the point of view of technology, it would be worthwhile to offer something new - there were already piles, as well as lightning rods. But the worst thing is that there is no clay and no rubble.».

From Ilyich to "Ilyich"

Representative of the organizing committee of the Engineering Championship Dmitry Serdyukov However, at the very beginning, just in case, I reminded the specialists that the case does not have an "unambiguously correct solution," so any suggestion takes place and the guys should be treated super–loyally - they are already doing well." However, someone distinguished himself not only by the ability to find a technically acceptable and economically sound solution, but also by a succinct presentation that did not exceed the time limit. And clear answers to the experts' questions. "The guys will face a similar format of defending their point of view in real business.", – stated Rusanov after the end of the championship.

When solving the case, as well as presenting the solution, it was necessary to take into account many factors – from the dilapidated state of the networks and high accident rates to the growth of energy consumption with capacity in the future. The latter is connected, again, with the development of gas production. Thanks in large part to this industry, by the way, the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug currently consumes 3.2 times more electricity per capita than the Russian average. Considering that electricity consumption in the region is growing by 5% annually, the Ilyich team, among other things, proposed completing the Polyarnaya gas thermal power plant in Salekhard, work on which was frozen at the end of 2015. The students proposed to build a facility with a capacity of 70 MW instead of the 268 MW that the investors planned to launch. «Additional sources of generation are needed in Salekhard, – underlined Alina Yankovic from "Ilyich". – Why is it there? Because there is a power line that supplies the railway.».

The team also proposed to develop the current automation system for preventing instability at Urengoyskaya GRES, modernize the most problematic 220 kV Urengoy – Nadym and Urengoy– Pangody power transmission lines, install an ice monitoring system on all networks and gradually install U-shaped supports using peat cushions under the foundations. All the events, according to the calculations of the students, could potentially cost 1.3 billion rubles. The largest items of expenditure – 1.14 billion rubles in total – are the reorganization of the construction of the Polyarnaya thermal power plant and the modernization of equipment at the Urengoyskaya GRES.

The proposed measures did not cause any comments from the experts. Someone even added an analysis of electricity losses and the availability of projects to reduce them. It seems that the key question to the students was a phrase uttered by the head of the Department of Business Process Management and Standardization of the IESC: "Why "Ilyich"?» «Expected- the captain of the team smiled Maria Sadokhina. – In honor of the man who initiated the GOELRO plan.A portrait slide immediately appeared on the screen behind her Lenin Street accompanied by a quote: "Communism is Soviet power plus electrification of the whole country, because without electrification it is impossible to raise industry».

It's better to talk about deer

The name of the Energy X team, which performed next, could not be interpreted so unambiguously. But the presentation did not involve a variety of interpretations – each decision was formulated very clearly. In particular, it was proposed to increase the reliability of the power system by building a 220 kV Urengoy – Muravlenkovskaya transmission line. At the same time, they chose an unobvious, at first glance, longer and more expensive option – 292 km worth 2.44 billion rubles versus 275 km and 2.29 billion rubles. Potential systemic effects played a role. In addition, environmental considerations were taken into account – both transmission lines do not cross the natural migration routes of reindeer.

– How did they find out about them? – One of the experts asked.

– There was a map, – explained Timur Shaimardanov, one of the four team members. – There are not only deer trails, but also the paths of the small peoples of the North. There are pastures through which linear items cannot be drawn.

Power engineers-x showed the same attention to detail when solving the problem of reducing accidents. For example, they proposed to reduce the number of thunderstorm outages by dividing the lightning line and sectional grounding. The widespread installation of Stockbridge dampers, a structure consisting of two weights connected by cables to a clamp that is rigidly fastened to the wire, should prevent the convergence of wires and the overlap of insulation. The device dissipates the oscillation energy due to the mutual friction of the wire coils from which the cable is made. A more complex solution, heating wires with high–frequency waves, should be implemented to prevent power line breaks. The insurance against falling power transmission poles is intended to be the reinforcement of their foundations with cross piles.

Among other things, load schedule planning and installation of static reactive power compensators are aimed at reducing losses. Energy saving measures have also been taken into account. Solving the case with them, according to the students' calculations, would have cost 3.3 billion rubles in real life and would have paid off in 7.1 years. «It is worth noting that the most expensive part of the project will be the construction of a 220 kilovolt overhead line.", – said the captain of the team Aziz Turdiev. It is noteworthy that Energy X has tried to take into account the risks that may interfere with the implementation of the project. These are changes in exchange rates, inconsistency of real weather conditions with calculated ones, late commissioning of facilities, loss of liquidity, lack of new customers and low qualifications of workers.

– And how was the accident rate and its reduction calculated? – the jury asked.

– We can provide calculations Shaimardanov replied. – Both technological and economic.

Engineers in four years

«Ilyich" is a trestle" They whispered in the audience at that moment. Whether this was true or not, it was possible to find out only after a couple of hours – two more teams had to perform first, and only then did the experts begin to evaluate. It was necessary to wait for representatives of other areas, some of which outnumbered the electric power industry. The best were Energy X, who received a ticket to the finals of the CASE-IN championship, which will be held in Moscow at the end of May. "Ilyich" took the second place. The Siberian Team rounded out the top three. By the way, it consisted of debutants, while individual participants of the first two teams had already appeared at the championship last year.

– This is normal, – summarized Rusanov after the winners received their awards. – The guys are growing up, their level of training and professionalism is getting higher. The trend is very clear: first–year students are still students, but closer to the fourth year they become specialists, qualified engineers. In my opinion, all the finalists' projects were executed at a fairly high level and with a good feasibility study. The customer for the project were Rosseti, IDGC of Siberia and it is possible that the company's management will decide on the implementation of certain elements proposed by the participants of the championship.