After being rendered unable to maintain its energy-supply infrastructure due to Western sanctions depriving it of the German-made replacement parts it needs, Russia has now begun producing Iranian-designed parts to repair its Siemens turbines in its hydropower plants.

The new MGT gas turbine units are facsimiles of the original Siemens equipment, and were designed by the Islamic Republic of Iran. The country had acquired a license to produce and assemble the parts locally prior to the recent wave of anti-Iran sanctions going into force.

Russia is presently able to produce small and medium turbines itself domestically, however larger equipment with a capacity of between 100MW and 120MW had to be produced at a Siemens assembly plant in Russia.

The German equipment may be able to be replaced now with the Iranian turbines, potentially allowing Russia to overcome domestic limitations on its energy infrastructure which the sanctions had been imposing.

The sanctions have done tremendous damage to the ties between Russia and the Western equipment suppliers they previously worked with. Last year, as sanctions prevented the repair of damaged turbines on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, deliveries gradually had to be reduced to a small fraction of the pipeline’s capacity.

The Nord Stream 1 pipeline turbines needed regular maintenance at a Siemens plant in Canada. However, turbines which had been shipped there became stranded after sanctions barred the delivery of them back to Germany.

After a special request from Germany, which had become worried it would not be able to fill its reserve supplies of gas which it required to meet peak demand in the winter, Canada issued an exemption for the turbines.

However on their arrival in Germany, Russia refused to accept the turbines, noting anomalies in their travel paperwork which the Kremlin feared might have been indicative of an intelligence agency sabotaging them to cause further damage at the Russian gas pumping facility.