POWER September 2023 - 25

TOP PLANT
Many employees were immediately
evacuated for safety reasons. Unfinished
foundations were quickly covered with
soil to preserve their integrity. In April and
May, some workers returned to preserve
other equipment that was staged onsite.
Then, in September, work resumed.
As winter drew near, workers faced
1. War was not the only significant obstacle
facing the Tyligulska project team.
Severe winter weather including snow, fog,
icing, and brutally cold temperatures also
made construction difficult. Courtesy: DTEK
Renewables
construction process was performed by
DTEK Renewables' employees since,
due to full-scale invasion, foreign companies
evacuated their staff abroad according
to the protocol of the foreign
embassies. Constructing wind turbines
without support of the foreign partners
was a challenge, but with Vestas consultations
we managed to succeed. "
Besides Vestas, DTEK had two other
major partnering companies that helped
construct the Tyligulska WPP-Crane
Ukraine and FairWind. The Crane Ukraine
company was responsible for the lifting
of wind turbine components with
cranes. Meanwhile, FairWind specialists
assembled the wind turbine parts and
performed installation works.
The Tyligulska project is one of the first
to deploy EnVentus V162-6.0 MW turbines
from Danish manufacturer Vestas. DTEK
said they are the most powerful onshore
wind turbines in Eastern Europe. Each
wind turbine weighs 730 tons and has a
hub height of 125 meters (m). The blades
are 79 m long and rotor diameter is 162
m. DTEK chose Vestas as the supplier following
" serious procurement procedures "
and in compliance with international rules.
Fluid Plans
DTEK had originally planned to install all
83 turbines by August 2022, with the
hope of celebrating project completion
on Ukraine's Independence Day-August
24. By the beginning of 2022, construction
was well underway, on schedule,
and gaining momentum. While only six
wind turbines had been erected, the
foundations for many more were complete.
" However, on the 24th of February,
we woke up to the sounds of rocket
fire. This military aggression shocked us,
destroyed our current plans, but did not
destroy our main plans, " Maksym Bogadytsa,
chief energy engineer of DTEK Tyligulskaya
WPP, said.
September 2023 | POWER
other challenges besides those caused
by war. The team experienced delays
and difficulties due to snow, fog, icing,
and cold weather. Nonetheless, DTEK
continued to move forward. The company
requested permission from the
military administration to work at night
to compensate for the construction delay
caused by air raid alerts during daytime.
The air raid alerts were a serious demotivator.
" Imagine-you are tuned in to
work and then an air raid alarm sounds.
Sometimes, we were sitting in shelters
for six hours. Then, you get back to work
and check everything again. You climb
125 meters up and here again-the air
alarm! " Yevhen Moroz, site manager of
Tyligulska WPP, explained.
" When the air alarm is over, it does
not mean that you immediately start doing
something, " said Artem Smyrnov,
head of the capital construction department.
" It takes about half an hour to
come back, climb a turbine, get ready for
works. Attacks exhausted people both
psychologically and physically. But we
coped with it, we learned to plan works
ahead in these conditions. We realized
how important it was for our country to
complete this construction. "
DTEK estimated the air alarms consumed
about 17% of the working time
during the main installation period, which
was through the winter. Poor weather
conditions took even more time away
from productive activities (Figure 1). In
many cases, DTEK Renewables' engineers
had to come up with creative
solutions to overcome problems. One
example involved using an agricultural
drone to spray a deicing solution on a
crane and blades so work could continue.
But even that wasn't a straightforward
solution-the drone had to be
modified because its maximum working
height was only 35 meters and the crew
needed it to fly up to 130 meters. Still,
they found a way to get the job done.
DTEK Renewables reported that none
of its employees was killed or injured
while constructing the first stage of the
Tyligulska WPP. " We believe this is the
result of carefully thought out security
protocols in the company and real professionalism
of Ukraine's armed forces, "
www.powermag.com
POWER POINTS
Winning Attributes
✔ Successfully completing
construction of Phase I (114-MW)
of a 500-MW Ukrainian wind farm
despite the Russian invasion and
ongoing war.
✔ through the constant threat of air
attack and regular alerts that halted
construction, sometimes for hours
at a time.
✔ Overcoming severe weather
challenges including snow, fog,
icing, and brutally cold temperatures
to bring the project to completion
quickly and without any significant
injuries.
the company said, adding, " We believe
that people are the company's main asset
and make an all-out effort to ensure
safety of employees and their families. "
Continuing On
Since commissioning, DTEK Renewables
has been monitoring the operation of each
turbine on a daily basis. The company said
data is carefully analyzed to evaluate the
efficiency of the wind farm, and while it's
a bit too early for performance figures to
be presented, all indications are that the
wind farm is living up to expectations.
" We all went beyond our usual capabilities
on this project and showed what
we are capable of. I am very grateful to
the entire team of DTEK Renewables,
our construction team, our partners, the
local authorities-to everyone who provided
unprecedented help and support.
I'm sure we still have a lot of projects and
many victories ahead! " said Selyshchev.
" The next step is Phase II. "
Preparatory work for the rest of the
wind turbines is already in progress. An
additional 64 foundations are needed for
Phase II turbines. As of mid-July 2023,
DTEK reported 43 were complete and the
other 21 were in progress. The process requires
the use of a special mortar, which
the team calls " liquid stone. " It must be
poured continuously and hardens very
quickly, which presents additional difficulty
in a war zone. DTEK said it also had
33 ready-made crane platforms prepared
and would add another seven in the near
future. With this, the stage appears to be
set for another successful project. ■
-Aaron Larson is POWER's
executive editor.
25
http://www.powermag.com
POWER September 2023

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