Alchemist of a pure energy: how Svetlana Grazhdantseva, a chemical water purifier at CHPP-3, turns water into light

Svetlana Grazhdantseva has been creating miracles for 12 years at CHPP-3, where steam and chemistry combine and boiling streams of water transform into a source of life. Her workplace is a labyrinth of pipes, filters and sensors, where every valve and reactant resembles a thread in the hands of a fashion designer. But instead of silks and cut-outs, she uses formulas, samples and impeccable precision. As a chemical water treatment operator in the Chemical Shop of the plant, she knows that even a tiny impurity in the water can shut the giant turbines down. But Svetlana finds inspiration where others see routine.

When Svetlana was a child, she drew sketches of dresses, daydreaming about the world of haute couture. She graduated from the Almaty Institute of Technology, imagining herself a designer who would dress thousands of people. But fate, just like mixing reagents in a flask, prepared a different cocktail. “I grew up in the village of Otegen-batyr,” she recalls. – Every day I saw CHPP, but I thought: this is a world of iron, where there is no space for creativity. I was so mistaken!”

In 2013, her fate brought her to the plant as a lab technician. Coal dust, ash samples – her first steps in the energy sector seemed far from glamorous. But even then Svetlana realized: the purity of water for boilers is also an art. “As a fashion designer selects the fabric, so I select the reagents. This determines whether the boiler’s “outfit” will be rusty and sick or radiating with good health, she says.

Her career is a story of how technology is changing the profession but not replacing the individual. Starting with routine analyses, Svetlana became a Grade 4 machine operator in two years. “We used to work with hydrazine and phosphates – dangerous but effective ones”, she says. – We wore protective clothing like astronauts. Today, reagents are safer, and there is less manual labor due to automation. But you can’t unplug your brains!”

The main breakthrough is the introduction of a reverse osmosis unit. “Earlier you had to manually turn dozens of valves”, Svetlana recalls. – Now the system filters the water itself, but if the sensor “gets cranky”, only an experienced eye will notice a trick. It’s like sewing a dress: even with an automatic sewing machine, it’s the person who invents the style.

“Our work is like a chemical dance”, smiles Svetlana. – You are always on the move: you calculated the dose of reagent, checked the pressure, and eliminated the leak. And if an emergency happens, you act on automatic, like a fireman. She compares herself to a dispatcher who controls not trains but molecules: “One mistake and you get corrosion instead of steam. But when everything is perfect, it seems as if the water itself is grateful to you”.

Svetlana is now passing on her experience to the young. “I always say to newcomers: you are not machine operators, you are detectives. A water sample is evidence. See turbidity? Means there’s a failure in the filters somewhere. Increased hardness? Look for a “breach” in the system, she explains. Her method is to teach through metaphors. “When I talk about reverse osmosis, I compare it to a sieve that sifts out even invisible dirt. It’s more understandable that way than using technical terms”.

“If you imagine a company as a body, the chemical shop is its purification system”, laughs Svetlana. – “We filter the “blood” of the station so that toxins don’t poison the heart of the plant – namely the boilers. She starts each shift with the thought: “Today my labor will warm someone’s home”.

And although her name does not shine on the CHPP scoreboard, Svetlana is aware that without her “chemical masterpieces” not a single light bulb would be lit. Svetlana Grazhdantseva has proved: you can dream about dresses, but create something more – pure energy. “I used to dream of dressing people”, she says, looking at the shiny pipelines. – “Now I “dress” boilers in crystal water so they give warmth. And that’s my greatest design ever”.