PPC Romania (formerly Enel) completed the modernization of the Bucharest Nord transformer station, located in the Dorobanti district, behind the Govt. The works started in 2009 and amounted to 70 million lei. More than 73,000 consumers in Bucharest will receive electricity from here, including key institutions such as the Government, the National Bank of Romania and Romanian Television.

The modernization project lasted so long because the complete sealing of the building and the replacement of all equipment was carried out without interrupting the electricity supply to consumers, company representatives explained.

10 ministries, 13 state hospitals, including the main emergency hospitals, 7 private hospitals, the government, the Metropolitan Police, BNR, Romanian Television and 57 embassy and consulate buildings depend on this station.

“This station should never lose power. It has four power sources and the ability to transmit energy to all areas of the city,” said Mihai Pešte, CEO of Rețele Electrice, the distribution company of the PPC Romania group.

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

When asked what the duration of power outages (unplanned outages) was last year in Bucharest, Peste said that on average it was 40-50 minutes per customer.

“In terms of service quality, Bucharest is the best in the country, we are quite close to the average of European cities, an average of 40-50 minutes per customer per year.

But this is not an even distribution. There are areas in the city where there were outages for an hour and a half, and areas where there were two outages in 10 years. We have decreased compared to previous years, this is a cycle of continuous improvement,” stated the PGN representative.

What works were carried out at the Bucharest Nord station

The northern station is equipped with six 40 MVA (mega volt ampere) power transformers. The peak load recorded so far was about 127 MVA. This load level exceeds the load value for the entire Giurgiu County.

• The internal area of ​​the station, approximately 4,600 square meters, is divided into four floors.
• After installing the new equipment, which is much more compact compared to the previous technology, 60% of the available space was freed up, part of which will be used for the construction of a technological test and development center for “Electromerezh” companies.
• If necessary, the remaining area can be used for the expansion of electricity distribution facilities.

The station building was completely erected in 1969.

• In the first stage, stonework and reinforced concrete elements were demolished, the total amount of which was more than 11,000 tons of materials obtained as a result of demolition, then, in stages, the building of the transformer station was strengthened to eliminate the seismic risk;
• About 6,000 cubic meters of concrete, more than 700 tons of concrete steel, and about 75 tons of metal structures were used.
• In order to increase energy efficiency, the room was thermally insulated, and for the same purpose, a lighting system based on LED technologies was installed.
• The work was carried out with the help of internal teams and contractors, which included an average of 50 people per month.

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