Winter is coming. Kuban ready?

The heating season in the Kuban is gradually gaining momentum. In some municipalities, batteries are already hot in all residential buildings and social institutions, in others, heat is still being served on applications. More than six billion rubles were allocated for the preparation of communal infrastructure for the cold in the region. However, technical readiness is only half the battle. It is important that residents do not face interruptions of heating and hot water supply. It was on this that the Governor of the Krasnodar Territory Veniamin Kondratiev focused on the regional meeting with the participation of his deputies, heads of relevant departments, resource supplying organizations and municipalities.

Heat on schedule

Autumn in the Krasnodar region was warm, so the heating season in municipalities begins at different times. Decisions on heat supply local administrations take independently, focusing on weather conditions. According to the standards, heating is started if the average daily air temperature is kept at a level not above eight degrees for five days.

However, Kuban Governor Veniamin Kondratiev stressed that it is impossible to wait for stable cold weather where people already need heating.

- It is important that in the homes of residents and social facilities – in hospitals, schools, sanatoriums was warm and comfortable from the first days of cold snap and throughout the heating season. In general, we sent more than six billion rubles to prepare for it. Today, in fifteen municipalities, heat is supplied to all residential buildings and all social facilities. In the rest, heat is served on the application principle. Heads of municipalities are personally responsible for the situation with heat supply in their territories. Each application must be responded to in a timely manner. You do not need to wait until people start freezing and send complaints and appeals, said Veniamin Kondratiev.

Heating is fully launched in Armavir, Leningrad municipal district, Beloglin, Vyselkovo, Caucasian, Krasnoarmeysk, Krylov, Kushchev, Novopokrovsk, Otradno, Pavlovsk, Slavyansk, Tbilisi, Ust-Labin and Shcherbino districts.

In the remaining territories, sixty-four per cent of boiler houses have begun work. They provide heat to about a third of the apartment stock and sixty-seven percent of social facilities.

Billions by degrees

Preparations for winter begin long before the first frost. Months before the onset of cold weather, utilities need to check equipment, repair worn-out sections of pipelines, build fuel reserves and make sure boilers can withstand peak loads.

According to Yevgeny Pergun, Deputy Governor of the Krasnodar Territory, this year special attention is paid to updating the infrastructure.

- Preparations for the passage of the new heating period we began even before the end of the previous one. All boiler houses and heating networks carried out preventive work and repairs where they were necessary. Resource supplying organizations transferred to gas thirteen boiler houses in Armavir, Gelendzhik, Hot Key, Absheron, Kushchev and Mostov districts. Sixty-six heat supply facilities were also modernized, about one hundred and fifteen kilometers of grids were replaced, and a full fuel reserve was prepared, Yevgeny Pergun, deputy head of the region, reported.

Under the state program “Development of the fuel and energy complex”, five more boiler houses were built. The facility in the Seversky district is already operating at full capacity, and commissioning is continuing in the Abinsky, Crimean, Timashevsky and Shcherbinovsky districts.

A separate direction is the renewal of heat pipes. On behalf of the governor, municipalities should replace five percent of heating networks annually at their own expense. Such work is especially important for cities with a long length of utilities.

In Krasnodar, the overhaul of the section of the main networks connecting the CHPP with the central part of the city continues. In Sochi, five kilometers of the main pipeline in Dagomys have been updated.

The readiness of municipalities for the heating season is checked by supervisory authorities. All territories of the region must obtain appropriate passports. According to the head of the North Caucasus Department of Rostekhnadzor Sergey Goloborodko, the special commission began inspections in early October and at the time of the meeting conducted 32 readiness assessments.

Hot question

However, even large-scale repairs and modernization of equipment do not guarantee the absence of utility problems. Particular attention was paid to complaints of residents about hot water supply.

- In the summer, the houses of residents turned off hot water for two weeks to prepare the systems for the heating season. But after the completion of the work, I received complaints about the long absence of hot water, its low temperature or low pressure. The largest number of appeals came from residents of Krasnodar, Novorossiysk, Tuapse municipal district and Sochi. Such situations are unacceptable. In this matter, I count on the qualitative interaction of all housing and communal services, heat supply organizations, regional authorities and municipalities, said Veniamin Kondratiev.

Vice-Governor Evgeny Pergun said that the interruptions are spot nature. Nevertheless, the head of the region instructed his deputy, together with the heads of municipalities, to individually deal with each appeal received.

In case of an emergency

Another important issue is the readiness of utilities and emergency services for bad weather. Kuban winter is unpredictable: relatively warm weather can be followed by a sharp cold snap, snowfall and icing. Especially difficult situation traditionally develops in the foothills.

The experience of last winter showed how important it is to provide the necessary resources in advance to eliminate the consequences of bad weather.

- During the last New Year holidays, difficult weather conditions especially affected the foothills of the region. Therefore, we need to draw up registers of privately owned heavy equipment that can be promptly brought in for clearance if necessary. We are preparing in advance to prevent a repetition of the situation, said Evgeny Pergun.

1,548 emergency brigades have already been formed in the region. Of these, nine hundred and fifty-two belong to the energy complex, four hundred to water utilities, another one hundred and ninety-six to heat grid organizations.

According to the Minister of Fuel and Energy Complex and Housing and Communal Services of Krasnodar Territory Denis Sorokaletov, the necessary reserve of equipment and equipment has been created.

- To eliminate possible accidents, backup materials and equipment were prepared, namely, six mobile boilers, seventeen diesel power plants, 658 backup power sources with a total capacity of more than sixty megawatts and fifty-nine light towers. This year, pipes, pumping equipment and hot water boilers were also purchased, Denis Sorokaletov said.

Mobile boiler houses and backup power supplies allow temporary maintenance of utility facilities in case of accidents, while specialists eliminate malfunctions.