Thermal power stations in Russia and the Soviet Union

The first large peat-fired thermal power station in Russia was built on a location about 80 km away from Moscow, in the place of the current city of Elektrogorsk, during 1912-1914. It was called Elektroperedacha (literally "electric power transmission"), and the settlement around the station (future Elektrogorsk) acquired this name, Elektroperedacha, as well. Today the station is called GRES-3 or Elektrogorskaya GRES.

Tomsk GRES-2, Tomsk
Yayva GRES-16, Yayva

Terminology

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The abbreviations below are commonly used in the names of power stations.

The term GRES (Russian: ГРЭС (Государственная Районная Электростанция), lit.'State Regional Power Station', Ukrainian: ДРЕС, romanizedDRES) refers to a condenser type electricity-only thermal power station introduced in the Soviet Union which still exist in Russia and other former Soviet republics. [1] The Russian abbreviation ГРЭС stands for Государственная районная электростанция, or "state-owned district power plant" (often abbreviated in English as SDPP). Over time the abbreviation has lost its literal meaning, and the term refers to a high-power (thousands of megawatt) thermal power station of condenser type.

The term TEC or TETs (Russian: ТЭЦ, теплоэлектроцентраль) refers to combined heat and power plants.

History

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The Soviet GOELRO plan of 1920s provided for construction of several GRES (along with 20 TEC and 10 hydroelectrostations, the best known among them is Shatura Power Station (peat-fired, planned already in 1914).

The first GRES were constructed upon the initiative of power engineer Robert Klasson.[2]

References

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  1. ^ ""GRES", an article in Great Soviet Encyclopedia
  2. ^ The Electrification of Russia, 1880-1926, by Jonathan Coopersmith, 1992, ISBN 0-8014-2723-1