A joint research done by the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Technical Heat Physics, State Energy Conservation Committee, Zaporizhzhia Energy Company, and a number of other organizations has culminated in project to commission a pilot cogeneration plant. The Zaporizhzhia- based Progress Design Bureau and the Svitanok Company plan to complete installation by the end of February, and the first boiler room turned power plant will be put into operation in early March. The result will surpass all expectations of Zaporizhzhia city authorities, the idea’s fathers believe. The cogeneration plant will supply the Pivdenny district with additional heat and electricity. The former boiler room will have its energy conservation increased from 60 to 90%, which will in turn bring down fuel costs by 15%. As Deputy Mayor Oleksandr BIRIUK assured The Day, after the pilot plant has been commissioned, cogeneration technologies will be implemented in other parts of the city. He estimates that the city budget will be able to save over 2 million hryvnias. Gas consumption will drop by 30-40%. It is now up to the Cabinet of Ministers to pick up the ball.
“If Ukraine takes no adequate, urgent, and resolute measures today to take its energy sector from the existing situation,” Volodymyr KHOKHLACHOV, Director of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Power-Saving Information Center, informed The Day. “Electricity and heat- generating units, and thermal and nuclear power plants in general, will start going out of order uncontrollably on a mass scale in coming years. The scheduled service life of the basic equipment at national thermal power stations is 170- 220,000 hours (20—25 years). As of today, 100% of the equipment has worked for 100,000 hours and 50% has reached its service limit. The same is true of nuclear power plants. (See last issue). On the other hand, research shows that the world power engineering has been showing a pronounced tendency toward the increased production and consumption of energy. Even with due account of considerable structural changes in the industry and the application of energy-saving technologies, energy requirements will in the next decade. For example, in 1998 Ukraine produced 172 billion kWh, 57.5% of the 1990 level. Conversely, the installed plant capacity has dropped over the past seven years from 53.4 million kWh (1991) to 49.1 million kWh (early 1999). In the current situation, the need to seek and utilize alternative energy sources is more than evident. A great many of them have already been used by the civilized world for many years. One of them, cogeneration, is most widely employed in Europe. This technology means joint production of additional electricity and heat on the basis of gas heat generators, such as boilers, furnaces, compressors, etc., already existing in the heat supply system, industry, and transport. “Nowhere else in the world,” Mr. Khokhlachov continues, “is gas being burnt only to get heat or hot water. This is a crime. Cogeneration plants are being built everywhere. They are characterized by a high fuel heat consumption factor, mobility, ecological safety, and many other advantages. Until now, nobody in Ukraine wanted to deal with this. We have done the simple calculations and concluded that if we used industrial enterprises’ waste gas emissions as fuel, if we bridged the gap between the producer and the consumer of energy, we could develop about 10,000 megawatts in additional facilities. This means two nuclear power plants of the type in Enerhodar. Ukraine displays terrible statistics on energy losses: we lose 15—20% while distributing, 50% while transporting energy, 5—10% while heating the boilers, and so on. What aggravates the situation in Ukraine is the uneven distribution of the power generating facilities and consumption of energy in the regions. For example, Zaporizhzhia oblast produces today about 30% of Ukraine’s total electric power, while Volyn or, say, Chernivtsi oblasts are practically devoid of generating facilities. As a result of overloading, underloading and wear-and-tear of local grids, regional electricity losses equal half the energy consumed. Look, we’ve got flowers blooming in winter over the heat-supply pipelines, but still we are surprised and look for some outside causes of the energy crisis. The main cause is our wastefulness,” Mr. Khokhlachov emphasized.
Scientists cite numerous arguments in favor of cogeneration technologies. First, the erection of such 0.5—80 megawatt plants does not require huge investment. Compared to the construction cost of a new condensation power station, now $1000—$1500 per kW, the specific cost of a cogeneration plant is about $300—$800. Second, with due account of the differences between the production costs of electric energy and electricity rates, cogeneration plants can yield a profit sufficient to pay off the capital expenses for their construction. The investment return time is 2 to 5 times as short as the standard one for electric energy (10-15 years). Third, cogeneration plants are situated conceptually and structurally in the immediate vicinity of potential consumers of electricity as part of the existing infrastructure. Boiler rooms are homogeneous. Modernization requires no special effort. One of the most important points in these plants is their mobility. A centralized heating station, converted into a cogeneration plant, will be able to supply electricity to the same neighborhood to which it delivers heating. This in turn fundamentally reduces the losses in power transmission lines, which is clearly an element in energy saving technologies. Ecological safety is the fourth factor that calls for the application of cogeneration. Such plants show a low toxic emission rate and meet the most stringent European standards. Moreover, enterprises with a cogeneration plant of their own can satisfy their own electricity requirements at the expense of waste gases. This will not only reduce the production cost of the factory’s basic products but will also drastically increase the factory’s energy security because losses in energy transmission from the generating company will not affect the technological flowchart.”
“The calculations submitted to the city,” says Biriuk, “show that the employment of cogeneration plants will enable us to solve the problem of installing highly- efficient peak-capacity facilities. The power-generating superstructure of a boiler room can be switched on during the peak hours, and the electricity generated will have lower fuel consumption than that at base power stations. In simple terms, electric transport will be working in the morning and evening rush hours on the energy produced by way of cogeneration. No doubt, this is the future of our energy. Nuclear power plants will become more and more expensive. None of us wants a new Chornobyl, so we’ll have to pump huge money into plant modernization. After all, the West will force us to. Cogeneration and other alternative sources is nothing but the real energy-related and, hence, economic independence of the state.”
With Ukraine having today 50 million kWh of installed generating capacity, scientists cannot agree to the 2010 targets to produce 265.3 billion kWh of electricity, which does not even reach the 1990 level. Energy market experts do not accept references to Ukraine’s economic crisis, the disastrous condition of the industry, and the resulting reduced requirements of electricity production. They think the crisis should be interpreted as a temporary phenomenon. Any energy surplus, should it be attained and used, would let Ukraine regain its position on the electric market and thus solve not so much energyrelated as economic problems as a whole.
“On our part,” Zaporizhzhia Deputy Mayor Biriuk continues, “we will do our best to support the idea of cogeneration technology development. This is rational and economical! Other advantages apart, cogeneration will make it possible to solve a host of social problems. For example, the turbine generator, the plant’s heart, will be manufactured by the Progress Design Bureau and Motor Sich Company. Such items were developed as long as 25 years ago. The stations were mainly designed to be used by the armed forces under extreme wartime conditions. The USSR collapsed without a war, dramatically bringing down the demand for such products. Today, these power plants can be used again after a minor technical updating. Enterprises have already received the first ten orders. Obviously, this will create new jobs and bring new tax revenues to the local budget. We are going to sign a contract with Svitanok in the immediate future. We have decided that the budget will be the main consumer of cogenerated energy. This enabled Svitanok to get a bank loan to manufacture and mount the first pilot plant. Yet, it’s not always so smooth. In spite of all the advantages and promises of the project, there is some friction between us and Zaporizhoblenerho managers. The oblenerho (regional electricity monopoly) has set a number of unjustified and difficult-to-meet demands for the transportation of commercial electricity on the state- run grids. It will be three times as expensive to meet these demands than to build the congeneration plant itself. The oblenerho insists that the grids under its financial accountancy should be repaired. Well, this is easy to understand. Monopolists fiercely resist anything that might threaten to undermine their monopoly. But this is neither a patriotic nor economical approach. The experience of other countries shows that prosperity is possible only with competition. Moreover, cogeneration technologies in no way jeopardize the state monopoly on the energy market. In any case, the bulk of electricity will be produced by nuclear, thermal, hydroelectric, and other kinds of stations. It is only a question of simple and rational economy and cutting down our mind-boggling energy losses. Let us hope the bureaucrats, including those in Kyiv, will understand the absurdity of their fears and make a compromise possible,” Mr. Biriuk emphasized.
PS. As Oleksandr SAYENKO, Zaporizhzhia oblenerho deputy technical manager, assuredThe Day, oblenerho experts have concluded after a thorough study of the cogeneration plant project that a compromise could be in the offing. He particularly emphasized that oblenerho management had already turned down the technical demands made by Svitanok and agreed that the development of small-scale energy facilities in Ukraine would later allow large-scale facilities to take sort of a time-out in order to accumulate funds for their own modernization.
