News | Headlines
Ukraine’s power crisis exacerbated by heat wave
Ukraine War zone update A huge proportion of Ukraine’s population, many millions it is believed, are suffering under the burden of a record heat wave compounded by regular power cuts. Daily life is divided into blocks of time when electricity is available.
Regular Russian air strikes have severely damaged the country’s energy system, leading to hours-long rolling blackouts that have forced residents and businesses to adapt in the extreme heat.
The Central Geophysical Observatory reports that it had recorded a record-high 93.5 degF (34.2 degC) in Kyiv for July 15, with even higher temperatures expected to follow. Grid operator Ukrenergo announced on 16 July new emergency electricity shutdowns for some consumers in seven regions – but not the capital – owing to the heat wave, following a failure of power system equipment. “Last night there was an equipment failure at one of the energy facilities. The energy deficit in the system increased,” it reported on the
Telegram messaging app. The energy ministry has urged consumers to conserve energy and minimise the use of high demand electrical appliances to preserve the stability of the power grid.
The extreme heat is also taking a broader toll on Ukraine’s economy, with state weather forecasters saying that the harvest of late crops could decline by up to 30% in central, southern and eastern regions.
Safety issues
On nuclear safety issues, the 26 July Update from the International Atomic Energy Agency noted that its team had observed and sometimes monitored ongoing maintenance activity, including maintenance of the components of the main electrical transformer of reactor unit 3, which were being dismantled for servicing, and planned maintenance activities in the reactor hall and the nuclear auxiliary building of unit 6, including the refuelling machine crane and the heat exchangers. The team was also able to observe
the maintenance of some electrical as well as instrumentation and control equipment. They did not report any issues related to nuclear safety or security related to the observed maintenance activities, although doubts remain arising from a ZNPP reactor 6 turbine hall visit, the IAEA team was (once again) denied granted access to its western end.
The team also noted that training is being provided for specialists performing metal integrity inspections at the ZNPP, using ultrasonic equipment.
However, during the second half of July the IAEA experts have continued to hear explosions and gunfire at various distances from the site.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, the IAEA teams present at the Khmelnytskyy, Rivne and South Ukraine nuclear power plants and the Chornobyl site reported that nuclear safety and security is being maintained despite the effects of the ongoing conflict. The teams continued to report air raid alarms heard from the sites.
Ørsted pilots novel installation technology
Germany Offshore wind Building on existing marine life protections, Ørsted has developed a new, lower-noise installation method that it believes could revolutionise the way offshore wind foundations are installed. The new technology, described as ‘groundbreaking’ by its developer, has been successfully tested in Germany, and it shows that this innovative approach can dramatically reduce noise levels during foundation installations, strengthening existing protections to marine life and potentially paving the way for the next generation of monopile foundations.
Ørsted is already implementing a range of effective protective measures during offshore wind farm construction, including limiting the duration, intensity, or extent of certain offshore construction activities. Examples of these mitigating measures include the deployment of bubble curtains or other noise barriers during traditional installation. The new installation method allows Ørsted to further reduce the potential impact from construction activities on the marine environment and build in a more cost-effective way. Ørsted successfully tested its new installation technique on three monopile foundations at the new German offshore wind farm Gode Wind 3. The noise mitigation method involves
a patented jetting technology attached to the monopile, which lowers the resistance of the surrounding sandy soil, effectively allowing the foundation to sink into the seabed – completely replacing conventional installation methods such as pile driving. The implementation of the new installation technology has resulted in a substantial decrease in underwater noise levels. With a reduction of 34 decibels relative to the most commonly used installation method, and without additional mitigation, noise levels were reduced by over 99 % to a level just marginally above the ambient noise found in the German Bight in the North Sea.
Beyond the noise reduction, this new technology is considered to be a step change in offshore wind monopile installation that, once adopted at scale, can provide for more
efficient and cost-effective installations of offshore wind foundations. 11 MW wind turbines have already been installed on top of the foundations, and Gode Wind 3 is expected to start commercial operation later this year. Patrick Harnett, executive VP and COO at Ørsted, said: “This new technology is a potential game changer … once industrialised, it could not only be cheaper, faster, and far quieter – without additional mitigation – than any other monopile installation technology, it also has the potential to make next-generation foundations lighter as they won’t need to be designed for a conventional installation process.” This is the first time a jetting technology has been used to install full-size monopile foundations. Ørsted carried out the installation together with Jan De Nul Group and its installation vessel Les Alizés as well as contractor Aarsleff. Ørsted has been developing the technology over the past years and is now looking into how to introduce the technology into the future pipeline, which includes assessing the feasibility of the method on more complex ground conditions than the pure sand conditions found at the Gode Wind 3 site. Further regulatory approvals will also be needed before the technology can be implemented in other markets globally.
8 | July/August 2024 |
www.modernpowersystems.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61
