Fortum, Rolls-Royce complete automation of Loviisa plant
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The project, which Fortum said was completed on time and within budget, aims to enhance the safe and the reliable operation of the plant, which has two VVER pressurised water reactors that were commissioned in 1977 and 1980. The operating licence for Loviisa 1 is valid until 2027 and Loviisa 2 until 2030.
Fortum and Rolls-Royce signed an agreement in May 2014 for the modernisation of the most critical safety automation systems on both units. Fortum created the safety automation architecture based on Fortum's overall plant safety design concept ADLAS, which validated the safety functions with the advanced process simulator APROS, the company said on 25 October. The scope of work for Rolls-Royce included design, licensing, installation and commissioning activities for new safety systems.
"We are extremely delighted that the implementation of the new safety systems was completed on time, within budget and according to high quality and required safety standards, " Magnus Forsstrom, automation modernisation project owner at the Loviisa power plant, said.
"Also, the nuclear-specific challenge related to the complexity of licensing processes, was turned into a success factor throughout the excellent cooperation between Fortum, Rolls Royce and all other stakeholders. This was achieved through an extensive pre-planning phase, proactive schedule management and continuous improvement during the project," he added.
The modernisation work was implemented in three phases during annual outages over the last two years.
Last year, the plant produced 8.16 terawatt hours of electricity, which is more than 10% of Finland's total electricity production.
