Simferopol - The 'electricity bridge' across the Kerch Strait will be built by the middle of 2017, a year earlier than the transportation bridge, Minister of Crimean Affairs Oleg Savelyev said.
‘This will be two ‘double chains,’ each with throughput capacity of 220 KW. It will be possible to send up to 500 MW to Crimea via these lines. If necessary, it will be possible to send over another high-voltage line across the strait. We are including such a possibility in the design for the transportation overpass,’ he said in an interview with Interfax.
Savelyev added that the federal targeted program for the development of Crimea and Sevastopol envisioned new power plants being built and commissioned in Crimea within the same timeframe.
‘This concerns generation with capacity of 880 MW spread over two points,’ he said, adding that the ‘electricity bridge’ and the boost in electricity production in Crimea would allow the region to get by without importing electricity from Ukraine.
‘The task is to provide Crimea with the possibility of avoiding shipments from Ukraine, even considering the potential growth in energy consumption,’ Savelyev said.
