Lithuania Would Help Astrava Nuclear Power Plant For Millions: What That Bill Means And What It Would Be For Business

The operator of the Litgrid electricity transmission system explained what the head of the country wanted to say and in which case Kruonis would be used to prevent the crisis. It is true that such a service would cost millions of euros.

In the run-up to the possible launch of the Astrava nuclear power plant, the president will convene a meeting of the State Defense Council on Thursday.

It begins in order to assess Lithuania’s readiness to protect Lithuania’s population and environment, and will consider the willingness of the Government and other authorities to respond to threats posed by the power plant, reports the Presidency.

Why a reservation?

The first reactor at the Astrava power plant is due to be fully operational next year, Belarusian authorities promise, but the neighboring state does not yet have a source of reserves.

This reserve is necessary to balance the electricity flows. This is necessary in cases where a nuclear power plant is shut down for any reason.

The reserve is also useful when the market demand for electricity is low, generally at night. In such cases, the nuclear power plant, which, according to good practices, must constantly operate at the same capacity, “sends” the energy produced to the source of the reserve.

In Lithuania, Kruonis HPP was such a reserve when the Ignalina nuclear power plant was operating in the country.

Belarus, meanwhile, does not have that reserve at the Astrava nuclear power plant. She says she is building power plants to secure the reserve, but construction is delayed compared to the planned commissioning of the nuclear power plant.

This lack of a reserve poses security challenges. When asked if Lithuania is not making the Astravas nuclear power plant less secure, when it does not allow it to use Kruonis HPP as a reserve, President G. Nausėda replied on Monday:

“In case of blackout (complete disconnection of 15 minutes) or other emergencies, circumstances, we would help our neighboring country to avoid accidents or the so-called ‘blackout’, which would be billed by millions.

This would guarantee the security of the system, but it would be very expensive to pay for such a service in extreme circumstances, ”said the president at Kruonis Power Plant.

What did the president mean?

In 2017, Lithuania stipulated in the law that it would not allow Belarusians to use the reserves of the Kruonis Hydraulic Accumulation Power Plant.

Lithuania already has a dismantled system that would allow this to be done automatically, explains the country’s electricity transmission operator Litgrid.

This automation was designed for the needs of the Ignalina nuclear power plant and was prepared for the elimination of congestion in the networks caused by large disconnections of the nuclear power plant units. In other words, in the event of a malfunction of the Ignalina power plant, the Kruonis power plant had to automatically start.

“After dismantling this automation, there is not the slightest possibility of releasing reserves at Kruonys in the event of disconnections from the Astravas nuclear power plant, therefore the Kruonis reserves will not be provided by themselves,” 15 minutes said Giedrius Radvila, Director of the Litgrid System Management Department.

It is true that in Kruonys there is another: the automation of the frequency control, also known as system automation.

It is not directly related to the decommissioning of the Astrava nuclear power plant, but its purpose is to manage frequency deviations, when when it falls to a critical level, the frequency management systems of all the power plants operating in the country will be activated. without exception.

According to G.Radvila, this automation is mandatory for all power plants in the country. This is even one of the conditions for connecting to networks and is related to the management of critical situations on networks.

In the event of an accident, when the frequency drops to a critical level, the reserve capacity is used before the electricity consumers go offline due to lack of electricity.

It is true that G. Radvila claims that the reduction of the frequency to the critical level in the BRELL ring, to which Lithuania belongs, is only possible after the disconnection of more than 4 thousand. megawatt generation. Only then would automation in Kruonis HPP react, forcing the start of operation of all the power plants in the country.

“According to our calculations, the disconnection of Astrava would not activate this automation. In practice, such a situation could only occur in Russia and not in the BRELL ring, when a large region with excess generation is disconnected in the UPS / IPS system,” said a Litgrid spokesperson.

According to him, it is in such circumstances that when the Lithuanian power plants start operating, Lithuania would already act on the principle of “least damage” to the country, and an invoice would be issued for the possible damage.

“This amount was mentioned by the president during his visit to Kruonys on Monday,” Radvila summarized.

Why do Belarusians love Kruonis so much?

Juozas Gudzinskas, associate professor in the Department of Energy at Kaunas University of Technology, says that the reserve at the Astravas nuclear power plant, like any other nuclear power plant, is necessary to store the energy produced at night.

According to him, although the efficiency of a nuclear power plant can be regulated, there is a practice in the world that such power plants must always operate at the same capacity, only in this way can they operate with maximum safety.

“By way of comparison: when you drive a car and gas if you press evenly, the motor runs more reliably than that you were constantly panting and stop “, 15 minutes said the expert.

“While the Ignalina nuclear power plant was still operating, it was very helpful that during the night, when the country’s electricity demand decreased, the remaining surplus power was” sent “to Kruonis so that it could reserve power,” he said.

“For the long-term safe operation of the power plant, it is healthier for the nuclear power plant itself, if it operates as consistently as possible. Therefore, it needs a place to give up energy at night. So we slept more peacefully at night, “said J. Gudzinskas.

It is true that he believes that without the reservation of the Astrava nuclear power plant, Belarusians may consider the opposite option: not to delay nuclear work at night, but other power plants in the country. This would work if the capacity of a nuclear power plant is such that it produces as much or less than what the country needs electricity at night.

However, the expert says he has never seen a case in which such practice is applied.

Litgrid claims that it is possible to build a nuclear power plant without a reserve, but not start it, as this would guarantee the reliability of the system and would not cause negative damage to systems in other countries operating in the synchronous zone (in this case, Lithuania , Latvia, Estonia and Russia).

“All systems operate according to the N-1 principle. It applies to all electrical systems without exception, where in the event of a major system failure, in this case Astravo NPP, steps must be taken to eliminate it. This requires free capacity with Russia and energy reserves in the Belarusian electricity system, “said G. Radvila, a representative of Litgrid.

Belarusian officials plan to start the first Astrava reactor normally next year.

Lithuania has been the biggest critic of this power plant since the beginning of its construction. She accuses Minsk that the power plant is being built in an unsafe manner. Belarus rejects the criticism.

The Astrava nuclear power plant is being built a few tens of kilometers from the Lithuanian border with Belarus.