In the presence of Alexei Gordeyev, governor of the Voronezh region in southwestern Russia, and Udo Niehage, CEO of the Power Transmission Division in the Siemens Energy Sector, the groundbreaking ceremony was held for Siemens’ new transformer factory in the Maslovsky industrial park at the south border of the urban district of the City of Voronezh on Sept. 3.

The plant’s annual production capacity will be as much as 100 power transformers. The transformers will help to modernize Russia’s power transmission networks. With total investment in the project of more than EUR40 million over 300 new jobs will be created. Construction is scheduled to commence in August 2010, with production to start by late 2011.

The main activities will be production, distribution and maintenance of power transformers to meet the needs of the integrated national power grid and the provision of power supply to production facilities. It is also intended to export products from Russia. The production plant will be integrated into the Siemens global technological and production network. During the first stage the plant will focus on the production of transformers with ratings up to 180 MVA and voltages up to 220 kV. Siemens is actively investigating the possibility of expanding the product range up to 500-kV transformers with ratings up to 370 MVA.