Generation energy

Oleg Chesnakov, Deputy Head of the Electromechanical Shop of HPP
Cascade, shared his labor path with us

I was born in the distant 60s in a family of power engineers, and the settlement was called HPP-2. My parents worked and maintained the hydroelectric power station HPP-2. My mother Valentina Mikhailovna Chesnokova started to work as a labourer on maintenance of the hydrotechnical structure HPP-5. My father Victor Pavlovich Chesnokov worked as a technician in the laboratory of the electric shop, was engaged in installation and adjustment of protection and automatics of HPP-2.

We had a service telephone in our apartment, which was provided by the enterprise, and Dad was able to coordinate the work of operational personnel in case of malfunction at any time of the day and night. And I was proud of his knowledge of the equipment in its perfection.

I entered and graduated from Almaty Power Engineering Technical School (AEST). I was assigned to the SAEM trust in the group of PNU. The area of my labor activity on adjustment of heat and mechanical equipment meant the whole Central Asia and Kazakhstan. And while I was young, it was interesting to go on business trips, to study new equipment, to get acquainted with people. But there comes such a period, when pulls home. And in1994godu it was decided to transfer to the Cascade of hydroelectric power plants, good – there was a unified system “AlmatyEnergo”.

Having transferred to Cascade HPP, I was accepted as an engineer on the organization of operation and repair of hydromechanical equipment of stations, on condition that I would take care of the planned reconstruction of the HPP. But after 30 years it still hasn’t been implemented…But they are planning to do it anyway, despite the fact that there is no “AlmatyEnergo” and AIC, but now there is “AlES”.

I started my first maintenance works as a crew member and tried to participate directly in disassembly-assembly of equipment to understand how and why and how much time and personnel it takes, what difficulties can be encountered.

Besides repairing main and auxiliary hydraulic equipment, I had to maintain and repair social and household facilities: kindergarten, school, pioneer camp ‘Energetik’, domestic drinking water supply of the village and production facilities of the HPP Cascade. A lot of time and resources were consumed by solid fuel heat supply.

My father – Victor Pavlovich Chesnokov – has been and remains my absolute ideal throughout my life at home and at work. His rule: “Keep away from a well-oiled mechanism and it will not let you down – don’t forge it”.

My first production mentor – foreman Evgenyi Mikhailovich Velchinsky taught me to read schemes and made me study the theoretical basis. He said that an engineer must know and understand how this or that equipment works, so that he could explain to people why it should be done this way and not that way.

While working at Cascade HPP I had a chance to work with remarkable people and specialists in their business. Among them there were: mechanic O.K. Plotnitsky, chief engineers O.A. Arabok, N.F. Belov, S.V. Galaktionov; directors A.P. Shiposhin, B.U. Mukaev, B.A. Sabyrkulov; head of EMC G.S. Semenov, leading engineer – head of EMC S.V. Kiselev, head of CAIS S.V. Vinitsky.

The masters are retiring, and the young competent generation is taking their place, and we would like to say or wish them: “Working equipment is good, but the most valuable thing in our life is not money and positions, but human lives! Take care of them. Equipment can be repaired, bought, replaced, but life is given only once!”

It is not enough to be able to ‘knock on iron’ and turn nuts today. We need specialists who understand what they are doing and what they are doing it for.And for this purpose it is necessary to revive professional training, to create a network of vocational schools with a good technical base. We need to abandon dual training in working specialities. But I warn young people: your strength lies in knowledge. It is not enough to be able to do something, you need to know how and why.

Schools need to:

– Bring back workshops with lathes, along with 3D printers. Let these kids ‘feel’ the steel, and click the mouse;
– have applied physics problems: “Calculate the water pressure for your house, garden, plot” instead of abstract problems;
– ban using the Smartphone in labor classes;
– get grants for innovation proposals: the best thesis is the one that saved the factory 100,000 tenge;
– have industrial-factory training, workshops-laboratories at factories, where veterans teach young people how to work on machine tools;
– hold competition ‘Golden spanner’ with an award – a personalized tool and a photo on the Board of Honor.

My advice to young people:

Don’t look for easy paths. The real magic is in the knowledge and ability to make the machine start. Your success is the light in hospital windows and the laughter of children in warm homes.

… And as for me? I’m retiring, hoping that the slogan “Communism is Soviet power plus electrification of the whole country” is not an empty sound, but pride. Thank you, all of you, you were my best teachers. And may the new masters leave traces worthy of legends on your mechanisms.