GE turbines for Kansas's energy project

The 201MW Post Rock Wind Farm is located in Ellsworth and Lincoln counties of Kansas, US. Wind Capital Group, a US-based subsidiary of Irish renewable energy firm NTR, is the owner and developer of the wind power project.

The construction of the $375m Post Rock Wind Farm started in September 2011 and was completed by October 2012. The wind farm was officially inaugurated in November 2012.

In December 2012, GE Energy Financial Services teamed up with MetLife and Union Bank to buy a stake in the wind farm for $247m. Wind Capital Group still retains substantial equity and is the managing member of the project.

The wind farm has the potential to serve electricity needs of 70,000 households while offsetting 815,000t of greenhouse gas emissions a year.

Post Rock Wind Farm development

In December 2010, a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement was signed with Kansas-based electric utility Westar Energy, which will buy electricity from Post Rock Wind Farm.The Post Rock Wind Project was originally undertaken by Hilliard Energy. The project was later acquired by the Wind Capital Group, which is focused on wind energy business opportunities in the US.

The Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract for the wind energy project was awarded in May 2011. Construction works began in late 2011 and took one year to complete. The project created 150 jobs during construction.

Financing Wind Capital Group's project

The financing for Post Rock Wind Farm was completed in January 2012. The project was entirely financed through a debt of more than $350m, which was provided by a group of international lenders, including BayernLB, Rabobank, Nord LB and Union Bank. It comprised of a construction loan worth $293m, an in term loan of $63m and a $20m letter of credit facility.

GE turbines for Kansas's energy project

Post Rock Wind Farm spreads across an area of 23,000 acres (9,307ha) in Ellsworth and Lincoln counties of Kansas. The project site is located 80 miles (128.7km) away from Wichita, the largest city of Kansas.

Post Rock Wind Farm consists of 134 three-bladed GE wind turbines, each one with a rated output of 1.5MW. The height of the turbines is around 300ft and the blade length is 37m.

Power generated by each turbine is transferred to a 34.5kV underground collector system that runs 24.6 miles (39.5km) in length. It is then stepped up at the 34.5/230kV substation.The rotor diameter of each turbine is 82.5m. The rotor speed is guided by electric drive pitch control with battery backup. The turbines are also equipped with aerodynamic braking systems. The turbine towers are mounted on spread-footing foundations and are equipped with in-tower wiring.

The wind farm is interconnected with a substation in Rice County, via a new 31mi (49.8km) long 230kV transmission line passing through Ellsworth, Lincoln and Rice counties. The wind farm also features two  meteorological towers.

Contractors involved with the Post Rock wind project

RMT was chosen as the EPC contractor for the civil and electrical infrastructure of the Post Rock wind project. The scope of the contract included construction of 19.6 miles of access roads, turbine foundations, tower erection and the associated electrical infrastructure, including the in-tower wiring, underground cabling, the step-up substation and the new transmission line.

General Electric supplied the wind turbines for the project. It will also provide operation and maintenance services for the wind farm.

Zaporizhye Nuclear Power Plant, Ukraine

The 6,000MW Zaporizhye Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), located in Energodar in the south-eastern part of Ukraine, is the biggest nuclear power plant in Europe and the fifth biggest in the world.

It is owned and operated by Ukraine's national nuclear energy generating company Energoatom and is one of the four operational NPPs in the country. It produces around half of the country's nuclear power, which accounts for more than 22% of the total electricity produced in the country.

The plant consists of six pressurised water reactor (PWR) units, each with a gross electrical capacity of 1,000MW, which were commissioned between 1984 and 1995. Unit 3 was shut down on 28 November 2014 and put under repair until 5 December 2014 following a short circuit in the plant's transformer yard.

On 3 December 2014, Energoatom confirmed that it was an electrical fault confined only to the power output section, without affecting the reactor, and that the radiation levels around the plant had remained unchanged.

Zaporizhye NPP details and reactors

Each generating block of the plant consists of a VVER-1000/V-320 reactor, K-1000-60/1500-2 steam turbine and a TWW-1000-4 generator. The Soviet-designed VVER-1000s are pressurised water reactors designed to operate for 30 years.The Zaporizhye nuclear power facility is situated on a 104.7ha site on the banks of the Kakhovka reservoir. The Steppe zone of Ukraine was selected because of available infrastructure at the nearby Zaporozhe Thermal Power Plant, with land unsuitable for agriculture and its distance from foreign territories.

Units 1 and 2 are undergoing a lifetime extension, involving the modernisation of equipment and installation of tension sensors and other advanced safety systems, following the March 2011 Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear disaster.

Zaporizhye spent-fuel dry storage facility

Following the breakup of the USSR, spent-fuel could no longer be transported to Russia and the shortage of free space in the cooling pools demanded a spent-fuel dry storage facility (SFDSF) at the site. Zaporizhye is the first Ukrainian nuclear power plant with VVER type reactors to include a SFDSF.

The spent nuclear fuel from the reactors is stored in cooling pools for four to five years until their residual energy and radioactivity decrease. It is then transferred to the SFDSF.

The storage system can accommodate more than 9,000 spent-fuel assemblies in 380 ventilated storage casks. The facility began operations in August 2004 and 80 casks have already been installed on the site.

Zaporizhye NPP history and technical design

The Council of Ministers of the USSR decided to build a series of nuclear power plants, including the Zaporizhye NPP, in 1978 after the first unit of the Chernobyl NPP began operations.

Zaporizhye NPP's technical design of the first stage, consisting of four units with a combined capacity of 4,000MW, was approved in 1980, and the first unit was commissioned in 1984. The second, third and fourth units were commissioned in 1985, 1986 and 1987 respectively. Meanwhile, the second stage, involving two additional power units with similar reactors, was proposed in 1988 and the fifth unit was commissioned in 1989.

The Chernobyl nuclear disaster prompted the Supreme Council of Ukraine to order a moratorium in 1990 on the construction of new nuclear power units in Ukraine, which led to the suspension of construction work on Unit 6. Severe winters and increasing electricity demand resulted in the lifting of the moratorium, clearing the way for the construction of the Unit 6. The unit was finally grid-connected in 1995, becoming the first nuclear reactor unit in an independent Ukraine.

Contractors involved with the Ukrainian nuclear power plant

Kharkov Scientific Research & Design Institute 'Energoprojekt' (HIEP), Duke Engineering & Services (DE&S) and Sierra Nuclear Corporation (SNC) were involved in the design, construction, testing and operation of the spent-fuel dry storage facility.The VVER-1000 reactors were manufactured by Russian heavy engineering firm Izhorskiye Zavody. Kharkiv turbine plant, now called Turboatom, supplied the 1,000MW steam turbines. Russian engineering company AtomEnergoproekt designed the Zaporizhye nuclear power plant.

HIEP was the general consultant for the design and construction of the facility, while DE&S was responsible for the project development, logistics, construction supervision, licensing, quality assurance, commissioning and maintenance of the systems and equipment. SNC supplied the dry cask storage system for the spent-fuel.

Westinghouse Electric Company was awarded a contract by Energoatom to provide a passive hydrogen control system for Units 1 and 2 to enhance the plant's safety. A contract extension agreement was also signed between the two companies in April 2014 for fuel deliveries to the Ukrainian nuclear power plants through to 2020.

Before the annexation of Crimea, Ukraine depended on Russian nuclear fuel company TVEL for the supply of enriched fuel.

Polk Power Station Expansion, Florida, United States of America

Tampa Electric's Polk Power Station is further further expanded to convert four existing simple-cycle combustion turbine units into an integrated combined-cycle unit. The expansion will increase the station's generating capacity by an additional 460MW.

Construction works on the expansion started in January 2014 and are scheduled for completion in early-2017, at an estimated investment of $700m.

The expansion project will enable the power station to serve approximately 100,000 households and generate 500 local jobs during the peak construction phase. The expansion will meet the future power demands in the area and enable Tampa Electric to replace the existing power purchase agreements, which are due to expire.

Polk power station details

The power station, covering an area of about 4,300 acres, is located on State Road 37 in Polk County, approximately 13 miles (21km)south-west of the city of Bartow, Florida.

The plant has five units, which include a 260MW Unit I that started commercial operation in late-1996, two 180MW units (II and III) that came online in July 2000 and May 2002 respectively, and two 160MW units (IV and V) that came online in April 2007.

Unit I is an integrated coal gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) facility, the first of its kind in the country, while the other units are simple-cycle combustion turbine units. The units currently serve approximately 75,000 homes in total.

Expansion of the Polk power station

The Polk power station project will primarily involve the installation of four heat recovery steam generators (HRSGs) equipped with natural gas-fired duct burners, a steam turbine generator (STG), a six-cell mechanical draft cooling tower and an emergency diesel engine generator. The new facilities will complement the existing facilities.

The HRSGs will recover waste heat from the existing combustion turbine generators (CTGs) to produce steam, which will be conveyed to the new Alstom STF60C steam turbine and Gigatop generator to produce the additional electrical power.

The power station development also involves the construction of 40 miles (approximately 64km) of new transmission lines and upgrade of the existing transmission facilities to convey the additional output to the grid. The auxiliary cooling systems of the existing Unit 1 will also be upgraded to use the new cooling tower in place of the existing cooling reservoir.

The converted units will use natural gas as primary fuel and ultra-low-sulphur diesel (ULSD) as back-up fuel. The project will also introduce the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) technology at the site, which will reduce nitrogen oxide emissions from the existing units by more than 75%. The new facilities are expected to overall increase the efficiency of the existing units by 37%.

Recent innovations at Polk power station

A carbon dioxide capture and sequestration demonstration project at the site, implemented by Tempa Electric in collaboration with Research Triangle Institute International, was commissioned in April 2014. The project was implemented with a DOE Federal grant of approximately $168m.

The developed Polk plant will demonstrate RTI's warm-synthesis gas (syngas) cleanup technology during a one-year demonstration period. It is expected to capture 300,000t of CO² from the existing IGCC unit and sequester it more than 5,000ft below the power station in a saline formation.

The reclaimed water project was completed in April 2015 through the collaborative effort of Tampa Electric, Southwest Florida Water Management District and the city of Lakeland.

The $120m project involved the construction of a reclaimed-water pumping station and a 15 miles (approximately 24km) pipeline between the city of Lakeland's wetland treatment system and the power station, a reverse osmosis water-treatment system at the power plant's site and two deep-injection wells, located more than 1.5 miles underground on the power plant site.

The facility reclaims waste-water from the city of Lakeland and serves as cooling water at the Polk power station, after being treated. Additional phases of the project to reclaim the wastewater from the cities of Polk County and Mulberry are expected to come online by 2017.

Contractors involved with Polk Power Station expansion

The HRSGs for the project were manufactured in South Korea. The parties involved in the transportation of the HRSGs to the project site include Babcock Power, Port Manatee, BBC Chartering, Federal Marine Terminals and Beyel Brothers Crane & Rigging.The construction contractor for the expansion project is Robins & Morton, while the engineering partner to the developer is Black & Veatch.

Race Bank Offshore Wind Farm, United Kingdom

The 580MW Race Bank is being developed by DONG Energy in the Greater Wash region, approximately 27km off the UK east coast. It will be one of the biggest offshore wind farms in the world when completed. DONG acquired the project from Centrica for £50m (approximately $81m) in December 2013.

The Crown Estate had awarded a 50 year lease to Centrica for building the Race Bank wind farm in 2004. The development consent for the project was awarded in 2012. Onshore construction is expected to begin in 2015, followed by offshore construction in 2016, while commercial operation is scheduled to begin in 2018.

With an estimated operational lifespan of 25 years, the Race Bank wind farm is expected to produce electricity sufficient to provide for more than 400,000 UK homes. It is further estimated to offset more than 830,000t of CO₂ emissions a year.

Race Bank offshore wind farm location and make-up

The offshore wind project will be located approximately 17m (27.3km) from Blakeney Point on the North Norfolk Coast, and approximately 17.4m from the Lincolnshire coast at Chapel St. Leonards. It will be approximately 32km off the British eastern coast and will extend over approximately 75km².

The wind farm will consist of 91 Siemens wind turbines of 6MW each. Each turbine will have a rotor diameter of 154m and be erected on monopile foundations in water depths ranging between 6m and 26m.

A2SEA's purpose-built offshore installation vessel Sea Challenger will be used to install the turbines.

Offshore and onshore substations at Race Bank

The wind farm will comprise three offshore substations and an onshore substation, which is expected to be completed in 2016.

Alstom Grid's DS Agile technology, a next-generation digital control system for smart substations, will be installed at the project. The DS Agile system will include advanced situational awareness features and MiCOM P40 Agile protection system, which enables to protect, monitor and control the assets.

The onshore substation will be located adjacent to the Walpole Substation and will consist of all the equipment to transmit power from the offshore substation to the national grid network.

Transmission of electricity generated by Race Bank

The electricity generated by the wind farm is proposed to be delivered to the onshore substation by using export cables. The cables are proposed to have a landfall east of the Nene River and approximately 3.7m (5.95km) north-north-east of Sutton Bridge.

Cables will be buried onshore for 6.8m (11km) from the landfall point to a new substation extension located directly adjacent to the existing substation at Walpole, Norfolk.

Contractors involved with the offshore wind project

JDR, a company based in the UK, will supply the subsea power cables. Its contractual scope includes the design and manufacture of 110km of 36kV inter-array cables, and accessories including hang-offs, electrical T-connectors, and cable cleats.Siemens Wind Power was awarded the contract for the supply, erection and servicing of the wind turbines.

J Murphy & Sons was awarded a £21.8m ($34m approximately) contract for the construction of the onshore substation. WSP will provide civil design support for the same.

Jan De Nul Group was engaged for installation of subsea export cables from the landfall to two offshore platforms, and that of the interlink between the offshore substations.

The contract for supply of 91 transition pieces for the wind farm was awarded to Bilfinger Mars Offshore (BMO). DONG Energy engaged Atkins to provide detailed substation design for the project.

NKT Cables was contracted for the supply of more than 150km of 220kV high-voltage export cable systems. The submarine cables are proposed to be delivered in 2017 in three phases.

Alstom was awarded the substation automation contract, while Seaway Heavy Lifting was contracted for the offshore substation transportation and installation. Dalcour Maclaren was appointed to advice on land rights in relation to the wind farm.

Salem Harbour Combined-Cycle Gas Turbine Power Plant, Massachusetts, United States of America

The Salem Harbour Station located 30km from Boston, Massachusetts, is being converted into a combined cycle power plant. The new natural gas-fired plant will have an installed capacity of 674MW.

It will consist of two units that will replace the four existing coal- and oil-fired units of the plant. The project is being undertaken by New Jersey-based firm Footprint Power, which specialises in transforming older and less efficient coal- and oil-fired facilities into more efficient power plants.

Construction of the power plant is scheduled to begin in the first half of 2015. Commissioning activities are expected to be underway by late 2016 and first steam production is scheduled for March 2017. Commercial operation is expected to begin in June 2017. An average of 320 construction jobs and a maximum of 600 jobs will be created during the construction phase.

The Salem Harbour CCGT plant is expected provide electricity to more than 600,000 homes and fill the power gap in the Northeastern Massachusetts (NEMA) and Boston region. It will offset approximately 450,000t of CO₂ emissions a year, on an average.

Salem Harbour Station history and redevelopment

The first unit of the Salem Harbour Station was commissioned in November 1951. Two more coal-fired units were added to the plant in the 1950s. An oil-fired unit 4 was commissioned in 1972 owing to the region's growing demand for electricity, bringing the total capacity of the power station to 745MW.

Footprint Power purchased the coal- and oil-fired power generation facility in August 2012 from Dominion, which was unable to keep up with the stringent pollution rules and high cost of operations.

Footprint Power cleared the ISO-NE Forward Capacity Auction to supply its electricity in February 2013 and the Energy Facilities Siting Board (EFSB) approved the company's petition to construct the new power plant in October 2013.

The 65 year-old Salem Harbour Station was decommissioned on 31 May 2014. Demolition of the existing four units, which will be replaced by two new state-of-the-art combined cycle units 5 and 6, began in July 2014.

Site details of the new CCGT plant

The new combined-cycle power plant will occupy 20 acres in the north-western portion of the existing 65-acre waterfront site. The remaining open areas will be developed to include a Harbourwalk, larger wharf, and expanded facilities for ferries, fishing vessels and cruise ships.

New Salem Harbour CCGT plant make-up

The quick-start plant will utilise General Electric (GE) FlexEfficiency 60 technology, which offers greater base load efficiency.

The units 5 and 6 will contain two GE 7F 5-series gas turbines with 'Rapid Response' capability, two steam turbines, and two heat recovery steam generators with selective catalytic reduction (SCR) and CO catalyst. They will be capable of adding 300MW of power to the grid within 10 minutes of start-up and convert 58% of the energy in gas into electrical power.

The units will be equipped with advanced emissions controls and noise reduction technology. They will turn down during off-peak hours, thus conserving fuel and reducing emissions output associated with a plant start-up.

The new plant is estimated to reduce the regional NOx emissions by 10%, SO2 emissions by 8%, and mercury emissions by 6%. The plant will utilise air-cooled condensers and avoid the use of large quantities of water from Salem Harbour for once-through cooling.

The facility will also include a water treatment facility, step-up transformers, two to three water tanks, and a 34,000gal above-ground ammonia storage tank used for the pollution control processes.

Gas supply to the Salem Harbour CCGT plant

Natural gas will be delivered from the Algonquin Gas Transmission pipeline system to the Salem Harbour facility through a new 1.2mi-long, 16in diameter pipeline owned and operated by Spectra Energy. Footprint will build a piping system to interconnect with the new pipeline and the on-site meter station for supplying the natural gas fuel to the gas turbines.

Transmission of electricity

Electricity generated from the plant will be fed to the national grid system at the existing substation located onsite.

Contractors involved

Footprint Power will construct a new switchyard facility and connect each of the four generator step-up transformers to it through 115kV underground cable connections. Two 700ft-long underground 115kV transmission lines will connect the new switchyard and the national grid substation.

Iberdrola Engineering was awarded a construction contract by Footprint Power in December 2014. The scope of work includes all engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning, and site works for the new facility. Iberdrola is also responsible for landscaping the open spaces upon completion of the construction.

Footprint Power signed a $200m contract with GE on 31 October 2013 for supplying the FlexEfficiency 60 technology. Cookfox Architects designed the environment-friendly building of the power plant. Spectra Energy is responsible for the construction of an on-site metering and regulator station at the facility.

TetraTech is providing environmental consulting and permitting services for the demolition and redevelopment of the power station. It conducted environmental investigations at the site, and is assisting with the site and civil design including site utilities plans, grading and drainage plans, and erosion and sedimentation control plans.

Yangcheng Coal-Fired Power Plant, Shanxi Province, China

Yangcheng International Power Company is now operating its 2,100MW (six x 350MW) number one coal-fired plant in Shanxi Province, about 800km south-west of Beijing. The steam generators fire low-volatile anthracite coals from a nearby mine, representing a new power supply strategy for China.

Yangcheng International Power Company is a joint venture between AES Corp, the leading US Independent Power Producer (IPP), and four Chinese groups.

Yangcheng supplies power to the eastern coastal province of Jiangsu as part of China's effort to substitute the transmission of electricity for the transportation of coal (the coal-by-wire strategy).

Previously, power stations were built close to markets and coal was transported to them. As well as being expensive, this created transport congestion and other environmental problems.

The new power plant was built on the site of the coal mine, in Shanxi Province, and the electricity generated is transmitted through a 740km, high-voltage transmission line to Jiangsu.

Orders for the plant were placed in 1996 and the first turbine was started before the end of 1999. Other turbines started up at five-month intervals until 2002.

Electricity supplied from Shanxi, China's major coal producer

For AES, Yangcheng marked a significant advance in the Chinese IPP market. Its earlier Chinese projects were on the small to medium scale. This project was one of China's largest, taking AES into the top ranks in the country.Shanxi Province, China's major coal producer, is working on becoming the country's largest electricity provider. According to a three-year plan, the provincial government set aside RMB¥70bn for improving ten large power plants. After completion of Yangcheng, Shanxi had an installed capacity of 6,500MW, and produces 30 billion kWh of electricity for other Chinese provinces annually.

AES invested $98m in the joint venture, with the Chinese subsidiary of US company AES holding a 25% stake in the project. Chinese sponsors include North China Electric Power, local utilities in Shanxi and Jiangsu and provincial investment arms. The partners' agreement was expected to run for 20 years from the venture formation in October 1996.

In May 2012, AES sold 25% of its equity interest in the plant to Sembcorp Utilities for $85.5m. The move was part of AES' decision to exit markets which do not provide a competitive advantage. AES is planning to sell most of its businesses in China for $134m by the second half of 2012.

With this move, AES' involvement in China's National Grid will comprise of only one hydro and one gas-fired plant, amounting to a total gross capacity of 75MW or 31MW on an owner-adjusted basis.

Investment of around $1.9bn was mostly covered by debt, although project shareholders supplied $393m in equity. Initial equity investments were made in June 1997. International sources provided around 55% of the finance.

Finances backing Yangcheng's coal-fired plant

The US Export-Import Bank initially provided $400m, and Germany's official development finance group Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) provided a similar sum, at an annual interest rate of about 6.6%. China's Construction Bank and the China State Development Bank provided the main Chinese project funding.

Contracts awarded and companies involved with Yangcheng power station

Yangcheng awarded contracts worth about $400m to Siemens, and $350m to Foster Wheeler Energy Group, to design and equip the Yangcheng power station. Yangcheng itself handled civil works, commissioning and erection of the plant, although both Siemens and Foster acted as consultants.

Foster Wheeler provided engineering, procurement and delivery of six 350MW steam generators, coal-handling equipment and ash removal systems. The steam generators use FW's double-arch fired technology. The group claimed it to be the largest single-steam generator order ever placed in China.Siemens provided plant design and the six 350MW steam turbine units, generators, instrumentation and control equipment. The contract is Siemens biggest to date in China. The company has been involved in five coal projects in the country, with a combined capacity of 5,100MW. Tianjin UBS Park Industrial supplied the steel structure, roofing, siding, decking panels, windows and doors for UBA and UMA Building.

Shanxi Provincial Coal Transportation and Sales Company supplies low sulphur coal to power the station.

Zaporizhye Nuclear Power Plant, Ukraine

The 6,000MW Zaporizhye Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), located in Energodar in the south-eastern part of Ukraine, is the biggest nuclear power plant in Europe and the fifth biggest in the world.

It is owned and operated by Ukraine's national nuclear energy generating company Energoatom and is one of the four operational NPPs in the country. It produces around half of the country's nuclear power, which accounts for more than 22% of the total electricity produced in the country.

The plant consists of six pressurised water reactor (PWR) units, each with a gross electrical capacity of 1,000MW, which were commissioned between 1984 and 1995. Unit 3 was shut down on 28 November 2014 and put under repair until 5 December 2014 following a short circuit in the plant's transformer yard.

On 3 December 2014, Energoatom confirmed that it was an electrical fault confined only to the power output section, without affecting the reactor, and that the radiation levels around the plant had remained unchanged.

Zaporizhye NPP details and reactors

Each generating block of the plant consists of a VVER-1000/V-320 reactor, K-1000-60/1500-2 steam turbine and a TWW-1000-4 generator. The Soviet-designed VVER-1000s are pressurised water reactors designed to operate for 30 years.The Zaporizhye nuclear power facility is situated on a 104.7ha site on the banks of the Kakhovka reservoir. The Steppe zone of Ukraine was selected because of available infrastructure at the nearby Zaporozhe Thermal Power Plant, with land unsuitable for agriculture and its distance from foreign territories.

Units 1 and 2 are undergoing a lifetime extension, involving the modernisation of equipment and installation of tension sensors and other advanced safety systems, following the March 2011 Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear disaster.

Zaporizhye spent-fuel dry storage facility

Following the breakup of the USSR, spent-fuel could no longer be transported to Russia and the shortage of free space in the cooling pools demanded a spent-fuel dry storage facility (SFDSF) at the site. Zaporizhye is the first Ukrainian nuclear power plant with VVER type reactors to include a SFDSF.

The spent nuclear fuel from the reactors is stored in cooling pools for four to five years until their residual energy and radioactivity decrease. It is then transferred to the SFDSF.

The storage system can accommodate more than 9,000 spent-fuel assemblies in 380 ventilated storage casks. The facility began operations in August 2004 and 80 casks have already been installed on the site.

Zaporizhye NPP history and technical design

The Council of Ministers of the USSR decided to build a series of nuclear power plants, including the Zaporizhye NPP, in 1978 after the first unit of the Chernobyl NPP began operations.

Zaporizhye NPP's technical design of the first stage, consisting of four units with a combined capacity of 4,000MW, was approved in 1980, and the first unit was commissioned in 1984. The second, third and fourth units were commissioned in 1985, 1986 and 1987 respectively. Meanwhile, the second stage, involving two additional power units with similar reactors, was proposed in 1988 and the fifth unit was commissioned in 1989.

The Chernobyl nuclear disaster prompted the Supreme Council of Ukraine to order a moratorium in 1990 on the construction of new nuclear power units in Ukraine, which led to the suspension of construction work on Unit 6. Severe winters and increasing electricity demand resulted in the lifting of the moratorium, clearing the way for the construction of the Unit 6. The unit was finally grid-connected in 1995, becoming the first nuclear reactor unit in an independent Ukraine.

Contractors involved with the Ukrainian nuclear power plant

Kharkov Scientific Research & Design Institute 'Energoprojekt' (HIEP), Duke Engineering & Services (DE&S) and Sierra Nuclear Corporation (SNC) were involved in the design, construction, testing and operation of the spent-fuel dry storage facility.The VVER-1000 reactors were manufactured by Russian heavy engineering firm Izhorskiye Zavody. Kharkiv turbine plant, now called Turboatom, supplied the 1,000MW steam turbines. Russian engineering company AtomEnergoproekt designed the Zaporizhye nuclear power plant.

HIEP was the general consultant for the design and construction of the facility, while DE&S was responsible for the project development, logistics, construction supervision, licensing, quality assurance, commissioning and maintenance of the systems and equipment. SNC supplied the dry cask storage system for the spent-fuel.

Westinghouse Electric Company was awarded a contract by Energoatom to provide a passive hydrogen control system for Units 1 and 2 to enhance the plant's safety. A contract extension agreement was also signed between the two companies in April 2014 for fuel deliveries to the Ukrainian nuclear power plants through to 2020.

Before the annexation of Crimea, Ukraine depended on Russian nuclear fuel company TVEL for the supply of enriched fuel.