On March 22, 2021, VVER-1200 reactor-enabled Unit 6 was commissioned at the Leningrad NPP. Andrey Petrov, Director General of Rosenergoatom (part of the Electric Power Division of ROSATOM), signed the corresponding order.
Pilot operation with 15-day comprehensive tests preceded the unit’s commissioning. On March 10, following the tests, Russian nuclear watchdog Rostechnadzor confirmed the facility compliance with the design documentation, technical regulations, and energy efficiency requirements.
“The Leningrad NPP’s new unit is the fourth unit with a VVER-1200 reactor commissioned in Russia. Today’s milestone event brings the total number of NPP units in Russia to 38,” Andrey Petrov noted. “The new unit will fully replace the capacity of Unit 2 with RBMK-1000, which was finally shut down in November 2020 after 45 years of operation. It will also ensure the energy and economic stability of the region.”
Today, the Leningrad NPP covers more than 55% of energy needs of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region, which constitutes 30% of the electricity generation in the North-West of Russia. Despite the decommissioning of Unit 2, the Leningrad NPP with an installed capacity of 4,400 MW remains the most powerful nuclear power plant in Russia and the largest power plant in the North-West of Russia. Its VVER-1200 reactor-enabled units serve as references for a number of ROSATOM’s international NPP projects: Hanhikivi-1 NPP in Finland, Paks-2 NPP in Hungary, the Belarusian NPP.
Vladimir Pereguda, Director of Leningrad NPP, stressed: “Commissioning of the constructed power unit for commercial operation is the result of the concerted and efficient work of all participants of this large-scale project. We are sure that the new power unit has safe and reliable future. Hundreds of tests at the stage of pilot commercial operation convincingly demonstrated that the power unit is ready to operate in full compliance with the project to provide electricity to the dynamically developing North-West Region in future.”
Before the power unit commissioning, there was the stage of pilot commercial operation, which ended by 15-day integrated tests. After this, on March 10, the Federal Environmental, Industrial and Nuclear Supervision Service (Rostechnadzor) issued a statement of conformance with project documentation, technical regulations and energy efficiency requirements for the commissioned facility.
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The installed capacity of Leningrad NPP is 4,400 MW. By the start of its commercial operation, Leningrad NPP Unit 6 had already generated about 2 billion kWh of electricity. According to preliminary estimates, after the beginning of commercial operation, the economic effect in the form of additional taxes to the consolidated budget of the Leningrad Region will amount to more than 3 billion rubles (nearly 40,5 million dollars) annually.
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