State Regional Electric Power Plant

a thermal condensing-type electrical station producing only electricity.

On the initiative of Russian engineer R. E. Klasson, a regional power plant fueled by locally available turf, the first of its kind in the world, was constructed in 1912–14 near Moscow. Named Elektroperedacha, it had a capacity of 15,000 watts. Now known as the R. E. Klasson State Regional Electric Power Plant, it was intended to serve the growing electrical needs of the Moscow region.

Under the 1920 plan of GOELRO (State Commission for the Electrification of Russia) a number of thermoelectric power stations were to be built, among them the well-known Shatura plant. With time the term “state regional electric power plant” practically lost its original regional significance and at present it is understood to mean a condensing-type electric power plant of very large capacity (thousands of megawatts) tied into an electric network with other large electric power plants. In the early 1960’s plans were developed in the USSR for state regional electric power plants of 1,000–1,200 megawatts and 2,400 megawatts, based on components of 150, 200, 300, and 500 megawatt capacity units. In 1966 the last of the turbine systems was completed, the Pridneprovsk plant (2,400 megawatts), the largest in the USSR and one of the largest in the world. The Konakovo plant (2,400 megawatts) and Zmiev plant (2,400 megawatts) were completed in 1970, as was the Krivoi Rog State Regional Electric Power Plant No. 2 (2,400 megawatts). In the planning stage (1971) is the first plant of the West Siberian thermal energy complex, the Itatka State Regional Electric Power Plant No. 1, with a 4,000 megawatt capacity.