Celebrating the tenth anniversary of Bulgaria’s largest wind farm, St. Nikola
(11.11.2020)
In March this year, the largest wind farm in Bulgaria – St. Nikola – celebrated its 10th anniversary since the start of its commercial operations. With an installed capacity of 156 MW – and 52 wind turbines with 3 MW of capacity each, the farm is providing over 22% of the total wind capacity installed in the country. The facility is part of the diverse portfolio of AES in Bulgaria.
At AES we are proud of our incredibly diverse workforce – with different ethnicities, genders, beliefs, customs and languages all forming part of our team.
For this month’s blog, in order to celebrate this important anniversary, we have decided to interview two AES employees involved in the Kavarna operations:
- Rositsa Rikova, Technical and Administrative Assistant at St Nikola and
- Radostina Yanakieva, Environmental Health and Safety Manager, Bulgaria.
Rositsa and Radostina explain their work at AES and describe the role of the Saint Nikola wind farm in the Bulgarian energy market. They also go into the innovative technology at the facility which allows it to conform to the highest environmental standards, whilst boosting Bulgaria’s overall renewable energy capacity.
Rositsa Rikova, Technical and Administrative Assistant at St Nikola.
Could you tell us a bit about your job at AES, your position, your day-to-day responsibilities and your journey in the company so far?
Well, I started my job at AES 12 years ago. That was my first “serious” job and I was very excited, a bit nervous, but most of all eager to learn, to prove to myself and everyone else that I can do it. And I did. When I started, the wind farm was just a concept. With the rapid development of the wind farm, turbine by turbine, my knowledge was growing as well. I was living and breathing the wind farm, no matter what day of the week it was. And now, it feels like home to me.
My position is technical and highly administrative, and I am dealing with all kinds of office work you could imagine, but not only that. A major part of my work is delivering the operational reports – monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, for the lenders, for the management, but also to process Corporate Social Responsibilities initiatives, control the expense allocation, support my colleagues in their activities when needed, et cetera.
I am really glad I’ve been part of the AES family for 12 years. Through my experience with the company I have learned a lot, I’ve met a lot of valuable and interesting people, which I may now call friends. Not only that, I am grateful to play a role in a really important project, which generates power for the Bulgarian grid from renewable sources, the largest wind farm in the whole country – making an important contribution towards the reduction of our carbon footprint.
How many AES colleagues work at Kavarna?
We are a small team of 10. Our team consists of an Operations and Management Manager, an Operations and Management Leader, an Environmental Health and Safety Specialist, 6 turbine technicians and me.
Is the activity of Kavarna somehow integrated in the local community in terms of social initiatives?
Yes, of course it is. Every year we support local community projects in Kavarna Municipality, which are focused on education, culture, health, infrastructure. Every time I go to Kavarna I see the lasting difference our projects are making for the local society and I am very proud of the social contribution that AES has made as a company.
Could you give us a bit of insight into the St. Nikola wind farm and the technology AES is using there?
St. Nikola wind farm is the largest wind farm in Bulgaria, situated on area of 62 square kilometres in north – east Bulgaria. It consists of 52 Vestas turbines V90 – 3.0MW Mk8, and its total installed capacity is 156MW. The turbines are with hub height of 105m and 90m rotor diameter. They have constant active control of the blades angle and the rotor position, which optimizes the electricity production. Apart from the turbines we have a substation with two 33/110kV step-up transformers, connected to the national grid via SS Mayak. In 2017 a reactive power compensator was commissioned and started operation.
COVID-19 is still causing disruptions in supply chains and in all sectors of the economy, and it is a difficult time for us all. Could you tell us how you and your team managed to keep operations running at St. Nikola during the pandemic?
Thanks to good logistics and careful management, everything is running well. My colleagues that are directly involved in the maintenance of the turbines are divided in teams of 2 and are arriving and leaving the site within 30-minute intervals, so as to avoid crowding. All members of our team are wearing face masks and we have ensured that antiviral hand gel has been placed in many areas, plus – all areas – offices, changing rooms, toilets, etc. are treated with disinfectant twice a day. I am mainly working from home these days, but I am visiting the site once a week, to make sure everything depending on me is running well.
Radostina Yanakieva, Environmental, Health and Safety Manager, Bulgaria
Could you tell us a bit about your job at AES, your position, your day-to-day responsibilities and your journey in the company so far?
Since 2018 I have been working as Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) manager for AES’ Bulgarian operations. This means I take care of the health and safety of AES people and contractors, and also environmental issues – ensuring that all of our assets and operations comply with relevant environmental legislation and our stakeholders’ expectations. The remainder of my responsibilities include EHS management systems, ensuring health and safety and environmental compliance, and reporting to various stakeholders including national authorities, AES Corporation management and lenders. I joined AES about 13 years ago as Junior Environmental Officer. During my professional journey in AES I have been responsible for the management of Corporate Social Responsibilities activities and also worked as Environmental Manager in the period 2013-2018.
What is it like to work for AES? Would you say your experience with the company has developed your skills?
It is a continuous journey with a lot of milestones. You encounter different challenges while working with dedicated colleagues in great teams. I have had the chance to work with line managers in the spirit of trust, guidance, accountability and thinking out of the box. As I have already mentioned, AES has allowed me to perform a diverse range of different roles during my time at the company. The formal training is one of many career-development tools that AES Bulgaria implements. For me the most useful instrument for professional development has always been learning through hands-on experience. The company enabled me to participate in many exciting projects, conferences and initiatives, and to share international experience and good practices in the EHS and auditing field across 3 continents. These are highly effective ways to gain knowledge and intelligence in the career path that I am pursuing, and I am really grateful for them.
We heard about the steps AES has taken to protect wildlife at St. Nikola using modern radar systems in the “Early Warning System.” Could you tell us a little about that?
Since the very beginning of the St. Nikola project we have carried out bird monitoring and when wind generation began at the plant, we already had the “Early Warning System” developed and running. In my job, I supervise the Early Warning System and also the overall reporting and monitoring of the local wildlife that we do at St. Nikola. We work with qualified and experienced ornithologists on site, who are constantly observing the bird movements. In case of probability of bird collision, ornithologists issue orders to the wind farm operators to shut down a turbine, a group of turbines or the whole wind farm if needed. This system has proved very successful in the past few years, and now it has expanded and covers the whole Kaliakra protected zone. It now includes three radar systems and all wind farms in the area are using it, under agreement of course.