Temelín Nuclear Power Station is to replace its tap-off transformers in 2027 and 2028, as part of the preparations for operation extended to 80 years.
Temelín Nuclear Power Station is preparing to replace its tap-off transformers. Part of the electricity produced flows back through them into the power station site, where it supplies, for example, pumps and ventilation. Marek Sviták, spokesman for the power station, told journalists that the new units are being manufactured and will replace the current ones within two years. The investment, in the order of hundreds of millions of crowns, is meant to increase the reliability of the power supply to technological units.[1][2]
ČEZ Group will purchase five new transformers. Four will be in operation, two at the first and two at the second production unit, and the fifth will serve as a standby reserve. Technicians will replace them during planned refuelling outages, in 2027 at the second unit and a year later at the first. The work is to take about five weeks at each unit.[1][2] Project manager Pavel Jankovský said that each transformer weighs tens of tonnes and handling it near the turbine hall requires thorough preparation and coordination with other work during the outage.[1][2]
According to Bohdan Zronek, a member of the ČEZ Group board, the service life of these devices ends in the coming years, so their replacement is part of the investments in the long-term operation of the power station. The new transformers are to allow continuous diagnostics of the technical condition and more precise voltage regulation, said the power station's director Petr Měšťan.[1][2]
The operation of Temelín is to be extended to 80 years, until 2080 and 2082. The concept for the operation of Czech nuclear power stations assumes an extension of 20 years, which will require investments of five to six billion crowns a year at each power station. For 2026, 238 investment projects worth CZK 3.8 billion are planned at Temelín.[1][2]
Chronology
- — Temelín Nuclear Power Station is preparing to replace its tap-changer transformers for hundreds of millions of crowns as another step towards extending operation to 80 years, until 2080 and 2082. ČTK / České noviny Seznam Zprávy
Sources
- ČTK / České noviny — 29 October 2026
- Seznam Zprávy — 29 October 2026