Barakah nuclear energy plant’s Unit 3 transformers energised

ABU DHABI / WAM

The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (Enec) has achieved another milestone in the construction of Unit 3 of the Barakah nuclear energy plant, being built at the Al Dhafra region of Abu Dhabi.
Enec has safely and successfully energised Unit 3’s main power transformer and gas insulated bus (GIB), an important step in the continued testing and commissioning of the plant.
In addition to the main transformer and GIB, Unit 3’s auxiliary power transformers and excitation transformer were energised safely and successfully in normal operating configuration.
This work was performed with the approval and support of Abu Dhabi Transmission and Despatch Company (Transco) and comes approximately one year after the completion of similar work on Unit 2, and
two years after the completion of the same work on Unit 1, demonstrating the benefits of building four identical units.
“I am proud of the continued progress being made at Unit 3 of the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant. We have maintained our track record of safety and efficiency with the successful energisation of the unit’s transformers, and we continue to establish Barakah as the benchmark for new nuclear construction projects worldwide,” said Mohamed Al Hammadi, CEO of Enec.
With the accomplishment of this milestone, the testing and commissioning teams will begin preparing for the commencement of hot functional testing
(HFT) at Unit 3, implementing the lessons learned during their testing of Units 1 and 2.
HFT takes place over a number of weeks and consists of almost 200 individual and integrated tests performed on major systems to check their performance under normal operational conditions.
The construction of the Barakah plant is progressing steadily; the latest construction completion percentages show that Unit 2 stands at 95 percent, Unit 3 is more than 91 percent, and Unit 4 is more than 82 percent, while the overall construction completion percentage is more than 93 percent.
All four units of Barakah plant will deliver clean, efficient and reliable electricity to the UAE, preventing the release of up to 21 million tons of carbon emissions each year.