On 1 September 2026 the final stage of preparing the heating network of Nizhny Novgorod for the winter season began: test firings, or trial heat starts, were launched at the city's boiler houses. They were set in motion by mayor Yury Shalabaev, who that day visited the new boiler house of the United Utility Operator company on Dalnyaya Street.[1]
Course and dates
Shalabaev signed the order for test firings at heating facilities in advance: the work was planned for 1 to 15 September. According to the general director of the utility operator Dmitry Sivokhin, the tests brought every heat source into operation in turn — specialists circulated the heat carrier, filled the systems and checked the boiler houses under load. Building management companies took part in parallel, checking the systems inside the buildings.[1] Once the tests were over the system was to remain filled with network water under excess pressure until the heating season officially began.[1]
More than three hundred facilities were involved in the check; all 116 boiler houses of the utility operator were to complete test firings by 15 September.[2][3] Adherence to the schedules and the issue of readiness certificates for the housing stock were overseen by the city department of housing and engineering infrastructure headed by Sergey Samsonov.[1][4]
New boiler houses and pipe repairs
On the first day of test firings particular attention went to two new automated modular boiler houses on Dalnyaya Street and in Bolshiye Ovragi, both built by the utility operator in a short time. The boiler house on Dalnyaya Street, with a capacity of 25 MW (five boilers, three of them in active use at the time of opening), was built between May and November 2025 to replace an outdated facility that could no longer cope with the growing load.[2] Both boiler houses have already allowed a number of residential buildings to be switched to more reliable heat sources, and they will also supply heat to the Neymark IT campus now under construction and to future development on the Oka escarpment for about ten years ahead.[1][2]
According to the head of the housing department Sergey Samsonov, by early September 2026 utility companies had already renewed about sixty kilometres of pipes.[1]
What the test firings mean and when the season starts
The mayor stressed that test firings do not mean the start of the heating season: the temperature in residents' flats did not rise during the tests.[4] Under the current rules the heating season begins when the average daily air temperature stays below +8 °C for five days running. For comparison, in 2024 heating was switched on from 1 October, and in 2025 ahead of schedule, on 23 September, without waiting for the weather threshold.[4]
Sources
- NIA Nizhny Novgorod — Yury Shalabaev launches the trial heat starts (archived)
- Vremya N — Shalabaev: preparation for the new heating season enters its final stage (archived)
- Vremya N — Final technical check of the city's boiler houses to take place on 1 September (archived)
- GiperNN — Trial heat starts begin in Nizhny Novgorod before the heating season (archived)