“Yerevan TPP” CJSC

“Yerevan TPP” enterprise was established in 1963. In 1997 “Yerevan Thermal Power Plant” state closed joint stock company was founded.

Design works of Yerevan Thermal Power Plant began in 1959 by “Teploelectroproject” Institute of Soviet Union. As a site for construction of the plant it was chosen the southern industrial area of Yerevan, which is one of the most power-consuming industrial centers of Armenia. Construction of Yerevan Thermal Power Plant began in 1961. First one of the seven turbine installations of Yerevan TPP with 50MW capacity was commissioned in 1963, while the last one in 1967.

Actually large heat-power engineering in Armenia was born with operation of Yerevan TPP in 1963. At that time Yerevan TPP was a mixed typed power plant consisted of a unit part with 300MW capacity (two К-150-130 power units of condensation type and two ТГМ-94 boiler units with 500 t/h steam capacity each) and non-unit part with 250MW electrical power and 630 GCal/h thermal capacity (four PT-50-130/13 and one Р-50-130/13 turbines of extraction type, five TGM-84 boiler units with 420 t/h steam capacity each), having in total 7 units with 550MW electrical power and 630 GCal/h thermal capacity. To reduce the construction costs it was chosen an open type arrangement as an exceptional design approach, yet this has been approved to be an unreasonable economical solution in the result of the further operation of the plant under the local climatic conditions.

Being commissioned more than 40 years ago the units and auxiliary equipment of the power plant have undergone a regular tear and wear and became obsolescent by exhausting their normative operating resource, which naturally resulted in significant dropping of the operation reliability and the efficiency of generation of the electrical and heat energy by the power plant. It shall be enough to mention that the equivalent fuel consumption in the plant for generation of each kWh of electricity reached about 372 grams forcibly resulting in high cost of electricity.

Yerevan Combined Cycle Co-generation Power Plant (YCCPP)

Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of the Republic of Armenia and the Authority of “Yerevan Thermal Power Plant” CJSC commenced the reconstruction program of Yerevan TPP by constructing a new state-of-the-art combined cycle power unit with natural gas firing. For this aim, after long negotiations and in the result of submission of solid reasoning the Loan Agreement ARM-P2 on implementation of “Yerevan Combined Cycle Co-generation Power Plant Project” was signed on March 29, 2005 between the Government of the Republic of Armenia (RA) and Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) (currently Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)). Based on the said Agreement the JBIC provided an Official Development Assistance (ODA) Loan to the Government of the RA with preferential terms: interest rate of 0.75 and 40 years of repayment period (including grace period of 10 years) by extending 15 918 million Japanese Yens. The Agreement was ratified by National Assembly of the RA on July 27, 2005.

It was foreseen by the Loan Agreement to construct a state-of the-art, high-performance, high-efficiency, safe from environmental viewpoint, fully automatic combined cycle co-generation power unit with 205MW nominal capacity and 103GCal/h heat export capacity in an area adjacent to the only thermal power plant of Yerevan, the Capital city of the Republic of Armenia with the aim to enhance the electric power supply capacity of the Republic of Armenia and to contribute to the promotion of the sustainable economic development of the Republic of Armenia.

As required by the RA legislation and JBIC Guidelines for implementation of the projects under Japanese ODA Loans, the selections of the Project Consultant and EPC Contractor have been carried out through International Competitive Biddings. To ensure high effectiveness in the evaluation of the bidding proposals and to provide valid and trustworthy evaluation results, the Management of “Yerevan TPP” CJSC periodically conducted workshops on relevant subjects.

The Japanese “Tokyo Electric Power Service Co., Ltd” (TEPSCO) was selected as Consultant for implementation of the Yerevan Combined Cycle Co-generation Power Plant (YCCPP) project. This company had an extensive experience for construction of similar power plants abroad. Consulting Services Contract No.YCCPP C/S 01 amounted in 843 150 000 Japanese Yens between “Yerevan TPP” CJSC and TEPSCO was signed on December 12, 2005.

As the successful bidder for Yerevan Combined Cycle Co-generation Power Plant (YCCPP) project implementation it was selected the Consortium consisted of “Mitsui & Co., LTD” (Japan) and “GS Engineering and Construction Corp.” (Republic of Korea), to which on September 30, 2007 “Yerevan TPP” CJSC concluded the EPC Contract No. YCCPP ARM-P2 TK/C 06 001 CA which was effectuated on December 21, 2007. As the manufacturer for major components (Gas Turbine, Generator and auxiliary equipment) of the power plant, the Swiss Alstom company having an international reputation, acted as Technical Leader for YCCPP project.

In the result of bidding the EPC Contract price was fixed on 24 538 081 000 Japanese Yens. As the amount allocated by the Loan Agreement for construction works was not sufficient while implementation of the YCCPP project was extremely important for the Republic of Armenia, the Government of the Republic of Armenia applied to JBIC with a request to make amendment in the Loan Agreement and increase the amount of the Loan. The Amendment of the Loan Agreement ARM-P2 was signed on May 27, 2008 according to which JBIC increased the extended amount by 10 491 million Japanese Yens. Thus, the total amount of the Loan reached 26 409 million Japanese Yens.

The Construction Opening Ceremony of the Yerevan Combined Cycle Cogeneration Power Plant took place on July 30, 2008 also in the presence of the President of the Republic of Armenia, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Korean Republic in the RA,    the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of the RA, the President of GS Engineering and Construction Corp., the Vice-president of Mitsui & Co, LTD, the President of TEPSCO, as well as Ministers and other authorities of the RA.

The opening ceremony of the new power unit took place on April 21, 2010.

Thus, the construction of the YCCPP has been fulfilled on a turnkey basis (from designing up to the commissioning) within 28 months period and in conformity with the project implementation schedule approved by JBIC. As stated by relevant officers and experts of JBIC, this is a rare case with complex projects being carried out under JBIC ODA Loans.

YCCPP has the following specifications:

Total installed capacity is 271.7MW; including electrical capacity of 242MW, thermal capacity is 434.9 GJ/h.

Major equipment:

Gas Turbine manufactured by Alstom company (Switzerland), GT13E2 MXL type with 179.9MW installed capacity, two modes of operation, 36.4% efficiency.

Steam Turbine with extraction manufactured by Fuji company (Japan) with 63MW installed electrical capacity, 103.7 GCal/h heat energy export.

Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) manufactured by SEC company (South Korea), dual pressure.

Specific (equivalent) fuel consumption rate in the new power unit, depending on the operation modes, is around 200g/kWh. Compared with the traditional thermal power plants being operated in Armenia the new power unit consumes about twice as less fuel (natural gas) for generation of one kWh of electricity. Taking into account the continuous rising of the natural gas price, the significance of this fact becomes determinant.

The new power unit shall ensure higher reliability for the Armenian Power System, better covering of the load curves at maximal operational modes and cutting down the losses in the electrical networks due to optimization of the power interchange.

The number of staff of the new power plant is much smaller. The power plant control is fully automatic at all operation modes. A capability to be connected with the up-to-date system of SCADA is provided.

Owing to the realization of new technology the efficiency of the power plant was increased to almost 70%, the specific fuel consumption was reduced about two times, consumption quantities of sulfuric acid and caustic soda were reduced tens of times. Levels of emissions were reduced significantly. For instance, Nitric Oxides (NOx) by 9 times, Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) by more than twice, Carbon Oxide (CO) by about 38 times, as well as consumption quantity of drinking quality water by more than 3 times.

Being the only thermal power plant of the capital city of the Republic of Armenia, during many years Yerevan TPP provided technological supply of the industrial enterprises located in the southern industrial district of Yerevan with 25 Ata and 13 Ata pressure steam, as well as the central heating of the residential districts of Shengavit and Erebouni communities by supplying hot water. After the reconstruction it shall serve to the prime mission of the national economic development of the Republic of Armenia much more efficiently.

 Address:                     Yerevan, the Republic of Armenia,

0053, 3 Arin Berdi Str., Impasse 3
Phone:                         +374 10  472 760
Fax:                             +374 10  472 771
e-mail:                         yerevantpp@yahoo.com

Director General:        Sasun Khachatryan