Story lines: Yury Aleksandrovich BUYATDINOV, pensioner, former shift supervisor of boiler shop of CHPP-1 named after B.Orazbayev

I joined the plant in 1967. I was called here by a comrade who worked at the CHPP. At that time, I was just graduating from an energy construction technical school. But I started out as a labourer, worked for a total of 40 years and reached the position of shift supervisor at the boiler shop of CHPP-1.
I remember when I started working at the station, there were 6 small boilers from the Soviet Union times. We worked three shifts of 8 hours. It was hard work. The boilers were old, fuelled by coal. Back then there wasn’t even a fuel supply. The coal was stored outside. Where the chemical shop is now. In winter we had to chisel the piled coal. We had two mills, but it often happened that the coal hung up in the bunkers. Then we had to knock it out with a sledgehammer, the dust was unimaginable. When the fuel supply was built, the coal was fed by belt. Before that, everything was done manually.

The city was growing and needed more energy. As a result, the load on the station’s equipment also increased, and gradually it became very high. Following the demand for energy, the station gradually expanded. Already during my time the 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th boilers were built, the 9th turbine was also built, then the second chimney, and then the water heating boiler house. When the station was converted to gas, it became cleaner, and then people came to us. But in the beginning coal was still used as a reserve fuel. When gas was switched off or supply volumes decreased, then coal had to be “switched on” again.

Regardless of the times, the plant has always needed competent people. Therefore, everyone who worked at the CHPP learnt and improved their qualifications. Promotions took place as the old staff retired. Thus, I was an assistant machinist, a boiler operator, a senior machinist, then a shift supervisor. But even after retirement I was retained at the CHPP – here I worked until I was 70 years old. I was appreciated! I am glad that even now I keep in touch with the plant through my pupil Gaziz Kinikeev, who now works as a shift supervisor at the boiler shop.

Tamara Mefodiyevna CHERNOVA, pensioner, apparatus operator of chemical shop of CHPP-1 named after B.Orazbayev

When I joined CHPP-1 in April 1971, I was just over 20 years old, and retired from here at the age of 55. I came to Alma-Ata from the village of Chilik, and in the capital I graduated from a pedagogical technical school as a mathematician. I worked at the school for only six months and then changed my speciality dramatically, becoming a power engineer. At that time, my sister worked in the capital construction department at CHPP-1, and she persuaded me to go there. I ended up staying here. First I worked as an apparatchik, then as a senior apparatchik. I retired from this position.

Our chemical shop was designed for water purification. It was a hard production, but when you get used to it and master everything, you don’t notice the difficulties.

Especially if you work with good people, competent specialists, attentive mentors and supervisors. When I first got a job in the shop, the head was Nelya Viktorovna Dvoryaninova, an understanding, attentive manager. If there was any problem, she always supported me. Year after year, everyone here became more and more dear, so you can stay until retirement.

Our duties included preparing desalinated water, both distillate and acidified water. The water was treated in order to prevent scale formation on fittings, boilers and turbines. We fed the desalinated water to the boiler shop, added phosphate solution and the required dosage of ammonia acid.

Sulphocoal was loaded into huge filters and we regenerated it with acid. It was washed down to a level of 1.5 mg acidity. Then this water was transferred by pumps to the boiler shop, and the desalting water – to the turbine shop. We supplied 2000-3000 cubic metres per hour. This water went further into production.

Due to its specifics, the shop was classified as a hazardous production facility, but we did not protect ourselves in any way, although there were caustic vapours, acid, alkali, ammonia, phosphate… But in accordance with the law, the employees of the shop received milk every day, once a year they underwent a full medical examination, for this purpose a special car came to us.

I remember when tank cars with chemicals were brought for unloading, me and the reagent workers (I was a senior apparatchik at the time) would distill acid from the tank cars into our own tanks. We breathed these fumes, odours, there were no masks or any other protection. The only means of protection were construction
gloves. We pumped reagents through a test tube every hour, and it was alkaline or acidic.

On chemical treatment mainly women worked. There were 5 people in each shift, and there were 4 shifts in total. Then we were switched to a 12-hour working day – day and night shifts. At that time, transport was somehow better, there was a transport service.

The demand for water for production was growing every year. There was a shortage of treated water, as our shop could no longer process the required volumes. So soon the 2nd and 3rd phase of the shop were built at the plant. After that, we had even more work to do. But we were still working physically, doing hourly analyses for water quality.

The capacity of the plant was increasing. In the course of time a lot of things changed in the chemical shop, automatics appeared. Reconstruction of production was also carried out. For example, five filters were added. Shortly before I retired, the plant was modernised. As there was not enough capacity, we made automatic dosing of acid, which allowed us to keep the acidity at a normal level.

Just as I was taught by more experienced workers, I also had apprentices. The girls, whom I taught, now continue to work at the station. Thus, Bondarenko Vera works as a shift supervisor, and Gulnara Kopabayeva was the head of the chemical shop.

I remember our station and our staff with warmth. Valentina Solovyan was the shift supervisor, and Nina Pokumenko, Tatiana Chingayeva, Natasha Parfenova, Valya Dushkina worked on the shift… Sometimes I remember how we all went on holiday. Everyone was very friendly.

I remember well that my husband Yuri Alexandrovich Buyatdinov and I were photographed for one of the station’s anniversaries. During the years of work at CHPP-1 we were given a flat for our good work, where we now live. And on the 50th anniversary of the plant we were given a Zhiguli car …