The team of the Mains and Substations Shop and the power and utilities services of the subdivisions of Northern Iron Ore Enrichment Works is hammering away at outages caused by bad weather in the region.
Over the past week, the power and utilities services of Northern Iron Ore Enrichment Works have been operating in an intense mode amid a sharp deterioration in the weather. From 7 January to date, power and utilities professionals have eliminated almost 60 emergency outages caused by harsh weather conditions. Most of the outages were caused by broken power lines as a result of ice accumulation and fallen trees. The power and utilities team is paying special attention to overhead power lines of all voltage classes.
Ice on power lines is a threat to stable power supply. This time, power engineers had to deal with abnormally severe ice build-up. Ice increased the weight of the lines by about 4-6 times. The weight became too much for the power lines to bear, causing them to break. During the first days, integrated crews of specialists from different departments of the Mains and Substations Shop worked almost around the clock. First of all, they repaired the lines that supply residential neighbourhoods. Next, they repaired the network that supplies the plant's key process equipment, administrative and amenity buildings of the shops, and then all the other lines that feed consumers of Northern Iron Ore Enrichment Works.
The power and utilities professionals admit that the past week has been challenging, a real test of professional and human qualities. After all, the plant's power and utilities facilities are huge: in particular, they include 835 overhead and cable lines with a total length of over 150 km.
"The work was as intense as it can get. The ice created extreme mechanical loads on the power lines and poles and led to chaotic damage to the power grid facilities, which had to be repaired swiftly. As of today, all consumers are energised, but some restoration works and anti-icing activities are still ongoing: the crews of the repair department and the cable and overhead lines departments of the Mains and Substations Shop, as well as of the power and utilities services of the open pits and other shops, are working on new occurrences of downed power lines, cleaning up safety zones, and restoring secondary lines and external lighting," says ANDRII TARANIK, Chief Power and Utility Engineer of Northern Iron Ore Enrichment Works.
Freezing rain is expected in the city again in the coming days. So, the power and utilities teams are set to respond promptly to ensure stable power supply to all consumers of the enterprise and residents of neighbouring districts and villages.
