Russia to send 4 mobile gas-turbine electrical power generating plants to Crimea
Four mobile gas turbine power plants (MGTS) with a total capacity of 88 Megawatts (MW) will be delivered to the annexed Crimea from the Russian mainland in order to cover the existing energy deficit in the Region. This was announced to the Russian media by the Member of the State Duma of Russia from the annexed peninsula, Mikhail Sheremet.
"Here, on the territory of the republic, we plan to supply four MGTS from the mainland of Russia with a capacity of 22 MW each. This is enough for us to endure this difficult period [the hot weather]," said Sheremet, according to the Russian news agency TASS. Sheremet did not specify the timeline for delivery of the plants.
According to him, four mobile power plants will operate in the Region until the Simferopol and Sevastopol thermal plants are put into operation. They are being built using illegally imported Siemens natural gas turbines.
There were reports in late July and early August about regular power blackouts in the annexed Crimea. Krymenergo (Crimean electricity distributor) blamed extremely hot weather for the power outages on the peninsula.
The day before, Krymenergo urged the inhabitants of the peninsula to save electricity during the heat period in order to reduce the load on energy equipment and published the instruction with recommendations.
Despite the launch of the third line of the Russian energy bridge in the spring of 2016, power outages continued in Russian-annexed Crimea. In December 2015, the electricity supply from the mainland of Ukraine to the Crimea was cut off because of the damage to the power pylons in the Kherson region. Now Crimea is supplied with its own plants and generator sets from Russia and through the energy bridge from Kuban.