Kalmykia delays commissioning of its WPPs till November

Start of wind power plants (WPPs) in Kalmykia was again postponed. The problems of the WPP park were discussed on October 7 at the sitting chaired by the republic's prime minister.

It is not the first delay. In February, Chingis Nimgirov, deputy minister for economic development and external economic relations of Kalmykia, reported that the deadline for starting the park, voiced out by the then head of the republic Kirsan Ilyumzhinov at his meeting with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, was postponed by a month, and promised that the first two wind power units and a gas-turbine combined heat and power plant will start generating electricity in late April-early May. However, in May the launch was postponed.

Now, the first two power plants are to be launched this November, and immediately they expect to start building eleven WPPs more to be commissioned in the first quarter of 2011.

The whole project covers the period up to 2012. It is planned that the WPP park will generate 150 megawatts of electricity. This will cover the needs of the republic and will allow selling the excess electricity in the wholesale market.