BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 24
Trend:
We managed to make serious progress in this area in just two years and the lost generating capacities were restored, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said during his speech at the meeting with power engineers after viewing the construction of a 330/220/110 kV Gobu substation with a capacity of 1,000 megawatt and laying of a foundation stone for a 385-megawatt Gobu Power Station, Trend reports.
“Despite all these positive results, I should also note that, unfortunately, during the operation of the stations built in previous years, including the largest station in our country and in the South Caucasus, the Mingachevir Thermal Power Plant, gross mistakes were made. Repair work was not carried out in a timely manner. No action was taken to upgrade the stations. The stations built during the Soviet era fell into disrepair," Ilham Aliyev said.
"At the same time, generating capacity at stations built from 2004 to the present was largely lost. It was precisely as a result of negligence, lack of responsibility and gross errors that an accident occurred at a substation of the Mingachevir Thermal Power Plant two years ago, leading to major implications. After that, prompt measures were immediately taken. The management of AzerEnergy was replaced and I ordered it to inspect our entire energy system. As a result of this inspection, an extremely unsightly picture emerged. As I have already noted, it is precisely as a result of the lack of responsibility and indifference that our energy system suffered enormous damage. But thanks to the prompt measures, the work done and the allocated funds, we managed to make serious progress in this area in just two years and the lost generating capacities were restored,” the head of state said.
Azerbaijani president noted that over the past two years, up to 1,300 megawatts of lost generation capacity have been restored in existing stations.
“The biggest work was done at the Mingachevir Thermal Power Plant where 600 megawatts of generating capacity has been restored. Today, this plant, operating at full capacity at 2,400 megawatts, is main source of energy for us. The life of this station has been extended and it will serve us for decades to come,” Azerbaijani president said.
President Ilham Aliyev noted that as a result of the upgrade of the Canub power plant, 200 megawatts of generating capacity was restored there.
“More than 200 megawatts of generating capacity has been restored at modular stations. A total of 230 megawatts of generating capacity has been restored at the Mingachevir and Shamkir hydroelectric power stations. Work was done at other stations as well, and in total, we have restored 1,300 megawatts of lost capacity in two years. I think this is a major historic event. To build new plants with a capacity of 1,300 megawatts would have cost us billions of dollars but AzerEnergy has brought all this in order with a very limited budget, and these stations have been given a new life now,” the head of state said.