Project and operations updateTransmission and distribution
Smolensk II construction site receives first transformer-substation modules
First prefabricated building sections for the Smolensk II construction-base substation reached the contractor’s base on 22 October, as grid infrastructure work advances alongside site preparation.
- Event
- First published on EPC Feed
- Sources
- 3 listed below
- Reading time
- 2 min
Rosatom reported the first delivery of prefabricated sections for a 110/10 kV transformer substation serving the construction and assembly base for Smolensk II. The pieces had reached the general contractor’s base in Desnogorsk by 22 October and were undergoing incoming inspection. The complete building is designed to consist of 16 modules. Equipment makers had also started assembling and shipping power and auxiliary equipment, but the notice does not say that the substation was installed or energised.
When complete, the substation is intended to feed seven smaller distribution transformer substations. This arrangement is planned to provide the construction base with permanent electricity and replace its temporary diesel generation. The 22 October report frames the installation as a foundational utility for the worksite: a switch from temporary supply to the permanent construction-base network, not a milestone for the future reactor units themselves.
The release describes a concurrent package of site-enabling works. Structures for an armature workshop, owner and general contractor offices, and a canteen were under construction; roads and engineering networks were being laid; foundations were being prepared for the concrete production facility and other assets. In equipment procurement, 38 lots covering 5,332 units had been launched for the 2026–2027 construction and preparatory period. The list included cranes, pumps, lifting and machine tools, HVAC, fire-alarm, water-supply and wastewater equipment. “Launched” describes procurement activity, not completed deliveries.
The longer project history shows why the October delivery is a construction-base milestone rather than a reactor-installation milestone. Atomenergoproekt’s 2014 report described a two-unit Smolensk II project using the VVER-TOI design and documented the engineering, environmental and licensing work then underway. It reported public hearings in Roslavl on preliminary environmental-impact materials in April 2014 and completion of engineering surveys later that year. The report described preparation of physical-protection and safety-justification materials alongside the design information model. Rosatom’s 2025 key-results report later records construction of the construction-and-assembly base beginning in February 2025. Read together, the records show the long transition from design and site surveys to present-day enabling works. They do not establish the reactor units’ current construction schedule or commissioning date.
The distinction between base infrastructure and generating equipment matters when interpreting progress reports. Permanent power for the site supports construction activities, while the reactor buildings and their long-lead systems belong to a later project phase. Rosatom’s October release also noted that environmental-expertise approval for licensing materials had been received in September and sanitary-protection-zone materials were agreed in October; it said a state expert review was expected by 15 December. That was a forward-looking date at publication, not a completed approval.
Sources
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