Sheffield Forgemasters International Ltd (SFIL) is to supply hydro shafts for three of the new replacement turbine units being supplied to the damaged Sayano-Shushenskaya hydro power plant in Siberia.
The 6.4GW power plant was partly-destroyed by an explosion that killed 75 workers in August last year. Six of the project’s turbines were damaged beyond repair during the incident and SFIL will be supplying the shafts for replacement units in a £1.6M order.
The order has to be completed by late summer and work has already started on the shafts –each weighing more than 100 tonnes – using the biggest forging ingot the company has available.
“Rebuilding the plant is obviously going to be a massive job but it is such an important producer of energy, particularly as a supplier to the aluminium industry, that the Russian government is keen to have it operational again as quickly as possible,” said Volker Schaffer, sales director of Sheffield Forgemasters Engineering. “Obviously, this lends an element of urgency to the order and we have already started work on the shafts and fully expect to complete them in good time. We are hopeful that we may be asked to provide more shafts as and when work starts on rebuilding the remaining turbine units.”
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