Finnish utility Fennovoima and national electricity transmission grid operator Fingrid have signed a contract to prepare connection to the national grid of the Hanhikivi-1 nuclear plant, being built by Russia in Pyhäjoki, northwest Finland.
Finnish utility Fennovoima and national electricity transmission grid operator Fingrid have signed a contract to prepare connection to the national grid of the Hanhikivi-1 nuclear plant, being built by Russia in Pyhäjoki, northwest Finland.
Fennovoima said 110kV and 400kV transmission lines will connect the station to the grid. Fingrid will be in charge of project management, including basic engineering, permitting processes, tendering of the construction contracts and supervising the contractors during construction. A licence from the Finnish Energy Authority is needed before transmission line construction can start.
An environmental impact assessment (EIA) has been submitted to the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment in Northern Ostrobothnia. The EIA programme supports transmission line planning and will be completed in 2016. Tendering for the construction contracts can begin only after the Finnish government grants a general power station construction licence. In July, Fennovoima received some initial permits related to the construction site.
Hanhikivi 1 will be a 1200MWe AES-2006 VVER pressurised water reactor. Fennovoima plans to start building the plant in 2018, and it is scheduled to begin commercial operation in 2024.
Earlier in September, Fennovoima said it purchased 157 hectares (ha) of land for the project at a cost of around €4.5m ($5m) from the town of Parhalahti, about 480 kilometres northwest of Helsinki. The combined total of land and water areas that comprise the headland, and which are now in Fennovoima’s ownership, is around 555ha, the company said.