A Bucharest resident spent 40-50 minutes in the dark last year, on average / How much did it cost to modernize the station that supplies the Government with electricity

​PPC Romania (formerly Enel) has completed the modernization of the Bucharest Nord transformer station, located in the Dorobanti area, behind the Government. The works started in 2009 and totaled 70 million lei. Over 73,000 consumers from Bucharest will get their electricity from here, including key institutions such as the Government, the National Bank of Romania and the Romanian Television.

The modernization project took so long because the full consolidation of the building and the replacement of all equipment was carried out without interrupting the electricity supply to customers, company representatives explained.

The electricity supply for 10 ministries, 13 public hospitals, including the main emergency ones, 7 private hospitals, the Government, the Capital Police, BNR, Romanian Television and 57 embassy and consulate buildings depends on this station.

“This station should never go unpowered. It has four power sources and the possibility to transfer energy to all areas of the city”, said Mihai Pește, the general director of Rețele Electrice, the distribution company of the PPC Romania group.

How long were the people of Bucharest in the dark last year?

Asked what the duration of power outages (unplanned interruptions) was last year in Bucharest, Pește stated that, on average, it was 40-50 minutes/consumer.

“From the point of view of service quality, Bucharest is the best in the country, we are quite close to the average of European cities, 40-50 minutes per customer per year, on average.

But it is not an even distribution. There are areas in the city where there were interruptions of one and a half hours and other areas where in 10 years there were two interruptions. We have decreased compared to previous years, it is a cycle of continuous improvement”, stated the PPC representative.

What works were carried out at the Bucharest Nord station

The North Station is equipped with six 40 MVA (Mega Volt Ampere) power transformers. The peak load recorded so far was around 127 MVA. This load level is above the value of the load for the entire Giurgiu county.

The interior area of ​​the station, approximately 4,600 square meters, is distributed over four floors. Following the installation of the new equipment, much more compact compared to the previous technology, 60% of the available space was released, part of which will be used for the construction of a technological testing and development center for the Electric Networks companies.

The rest of the space will be able to be used for expanding the electrical energy distribution facilities, if necessary.

The station building, dating from 1969, has been fully consolidated. In a first phase, masonry and reinforced concrete elements were demolished that totaled over 11,000 tons of materials resulting from the demolitions, then, in stages, the transformer station building was consolidated to eliminate the seismic risk; about 6,000 cubic meters of concrete, over 700 tons of concrete steel, about 75 tons of metal constructions were used. The space was thermally insulated in order to increase energy efficiency, and for the same purpose a lighting system based on LED technology was installed. The works were carried out with the help of internal teams and contractors, which included, on average, 50 people per month.

Rețele Electrice companies operate networks with a total length of over 133,000 kilometers in three areas of the country: South Muntenia (including Bucharest), Banat and Dobrogea, covering a third of the local distribution market.