Control panel of the Krasnoyarsk CHPP-3 – the youngest and most advanced in the city. Photo: SGK press service/Anton Petrov
The heating season in Krasnoyarsk began a month ago, on September 12. The regional center is preparing to live in daily freezing conditions. It is noteworthy that in recent years winter has not come to the townspeople unexpectedly, as it happened in previous years. What has been done so that the Siberian city spends the harsh winters with warmth and softness? This was told to us by the leaders of the regional association of the Siberian Generating Company, the main heat supplier in the region.
WARMTH FOR SIBERIA
In Krasnoyarsk there are three thermal power plants and they all operate in cogeneration mode, that is, they generate heat and electricity simultaneously.
Krasnoyarsk CHPP-3 is the youngest and most advanced in the city. In 2012, the construction of the plant’s first power unit became the first project of a power supply agreement (CSA) in Siberia. Currently, construction of the second power unit is underway at CHPP-3, the completion of which is scheduled for 2025: the city of more than a million inhabitants is actively being built, requires more and more heat, and workers in the sector energy are actively promoting its implementation. of development plans. Investments in the project amount to 27.5 billion rubles.
Krasnoyarsk CHPP-2, which is already at the design and construction stage, was built as the most economical from the Urals to the Far East in terms of specific fuel consumption. Currently, CHPP-2 is the main heat source for Krasnoyarsk; heats industrial enterprises in four administrative districts of the city and a third of the housing stock.
The oldest of the Krasnoyarsk stations is CHPP-1. It was built during the Great Patriotic War to provide power to evacuated factories in the west of the country. The station is currently undergoing a major environmental modernization. Investments amount to 22 billion rubles. In 2018, three old ones were demolished and a new chimney was built, the tallest in Krasnoyarsk (the higher the chimney, the greater the production emissions that are dispersed from the zone of human activity). The station is equipped with modern electric precipitators with a solid particle collection rate of 99%; 11 of the 15 planned electrostatic precipitators have already been installed. By the way, CHPP-2 and CHPP-3 were already equipped with the same electrostatic precipitators during construction.
“SGK supplies heating to almost the entire residential and social park of Krasnoyarsk and also operates in nine regions of Russia, from Moscow to Primorye. The company ranks fifth in the world in heat supply to consumers,” said Oleg Bubnovsky, general director of the Yenisei TGC company.
CHPP-1 makes a fantastic impression. Photo: SGK press service/Anton Petrov
WHAT SHOULD I CHANGE? THE ROBOT WILL TELL YOU
But great energy is not only the stations, but also kilometers and kilometers of heating networks. SGK began large-scale modernization of Krasnoyarsk’s heating infrastructure in 2020. Until 2032, the company plans to invest its own 18 billion rubles in the modernization of heating networks and other projects to improve the reliability of the city’s heat supply. Furthermore, half of this amount has already been invested.
In total, about 200 kilometers of heating networks have been updated since the start of modernization. In 2024, another 50 km. Is this too much? For example, this year 6.9 km of communications in Chelyabinsk, 22 km in Omsk, 28 km in Samara and 40 km in Yekaterinburg will be upgraded. It is not surprising that the coldest winter in the last five years in the regional capital of 2023-2024 passed as usual, without incident.
“This year we actively used the robot to check the status of heating networks. Emphasis was placed on replacing large diameter pipes. Additionally, residents see that work continues almost all year round. All this is done so that the city passes the winter calmly, without major gusts or fountains in January,” said Sergei Ivanov, director of the Krasnoyarsk Heating Network.
Utility workers managed to stop the deterioration of the city’s heating networks.
ATTENTION TO ECOLOGY
Modernization of networks makes it possible not only to improve the reliability and quality of heat supply in the city, but also to close inefficient boiler rooms, which often emit smoke in residential areas. These heat sources are a legacy of Soviet times, when it was customary for each plant to have its own boiler room, which simultaneously heated residential areas and the houses of plant workers.
Since 2018, SGK, as part of the federal project “Clean Air”, has been transferring consumers from such boiler rooms to thermal power plants and shutting down non-ecological heat sources themselves. Today, 35 small boiler rooms of the 37 planned for replacement have already been closed; More than a thousand facilities receive high-quality, environmentally friendly heat from modern power plants. The Russian Ministry of Energy estimates the effect of these measures to reduce emissions at 10.8 thousand tons, or 6% of the gross volume; The ministry published this data based on the 2023 results.
In general, the question of ecology is one of the key issues for Krasnoyarsk. The city is located in a basin that is little blown by the winds. Emissions from burning coal in small boiler rooms and private houses, as well as the active use of gasoline and diesel cars, lead to a “black sky” regime, which does not allow city residents to breathe deeply.
In addition to small boiler rooms, within Krasnoyarsk there are 15 thousand private homes that are not connected to the heating network. They are heated with their own boilers, which run on coal, wood or electricity. Due to the low height of the pipes, emissions from private sector stoves accumulate on the earth’s surface at a height of 2 to 10 meters. Experts have estimated that 20-30% of gross emissions to the terrestrial air layer, the main zone of human activity, in Krasnoyarsk comes from the private sector.
Supplying heat from a thermal power plant to every home is difficult and not always possible due to the specifics of private sector development. For this reason, SGK, together with the Regional Government, has been developing the “New Heat” project since 2021 to convert houses to heating with electricity. Currently, 115 houses in two microdistricts of Krasnoyarsk participate in it.
So that when heating with electricity people do not pay more than with coal, SGK during the heating season compensates the owner through Krasnoyarskenergosbyt with 2/3 of the final price of electricity monthly, taking into account the area of the home in the amount . of 20.7 kW/h per square meter.
Experts rate the experience as successful. According to calculations, the reduction of harmful emissions due to the reduction in the number of smokestacks in the private sector alone within the framework of the pilot project is 397.43 tons per year.
“CHARGERS” FOR “ELECTRIC CELLS”
Regional energy engineers are involved in solving many other environmental problems. For example, experts note that cars are also among the leaders in emissions of harmful gases into the atmosphere. Therefore, in Krasnoyarsk, SGK and Rosseti Sibir are developing the “Siberia Charges” project to expand the infrastructure for electric vehicles.
Since 2022, 62 electric charging stations have been equipped in Krasnoyarsk and one more in Divnogorsk. Photo: SGK press service/Anton Petrov
“There is a vicious circle: there are no charging stations, people do not buy electric cars, there are no electric cars, companies do not build charging stations. We decided to open the chargers for the future, so that people are not afraid to buy a car and not have anywhere to charge it,” says Igor Zagorodniy, head of development programs at SGK.
“Loading” panels are mounted on the walls of transformer substations in courtyards in residential areas. We are talking about so-called “slow” electric charging stations, which charge an electric car for four hours or more. Residents of residential areas often leave their cars charging overnight.
Since 2022, 62 electric charging stations have been equipped in Krasnoyarsk and another in the satellite city of Divnogorsk. Thus, Krasnoyarsk’s electric vehicle charging network is today the largest beyond the Urals. The company plans to increase the number of charging stations to 100 by 2025, and together with the “charging” of other existing projects in the city, their number will rise to 150, which, according to experts, will create incentives for further growth in the number of electric cars and, consequently, reduce emissions from conventional transport, which negatively affects urban air quality.
GREEN TEAM
Since 2015, SGC has carried out a volunteer project to create the “lung” of the city: its greening. The Green Squad initiative unites energy workers, schoolchildren and all interested residents of Krasnoyarsk. Saplings are planted in cities in the region where SGC companies operate. During this time thousands of trees and shrubs have already been planted.
“It is important to plant trees, because Krasnoyarsk will be more beautiful, with clean air and greener,” said schoolgirl Ulyana Bogolyubova.
“We live in this city, all workers are residents of Krasnoyarsk, so it is necessary to improve it,” says Sergei Ivanov, director of the Krasnoyarsk Heating Network, about the main principle of the “Green Squadron”.
Since 2015, SGC, together with volunteers and schoolchildren, have planted thousands of trees and shrubs. Photo: SGK press service/Anton Petrov
PERSONNEL FOR THE ENERGY INDUSTRY
Please note that actions like the “Green Squad” are not only the greening of the city, but also a closer acquaintance with the “family of energy engineers”, their traditions and the atmosphere in the team, which is always happy to replenish itself . .
SGK pays much attention to the formation of a personnel reserve. Specialists are trained from school. Together with the Melnichenko Foundation, the company offers energy courses in schools, offers seasonal employment and career guidance to young people within the framework of the “Profkomandy.FM” project.
In 2022, SGK signed an agreement with the Ministry of Education of the Krasnoyarsk Territory and three professional educational institutions training energy specialists for the joint implementation of the federal program “Professionalism”. This document marked the beginning of the formation of the educational and productive group of the fuel and energy complex in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. With the financial participation of SGK in secondary schools, training and production workshops for future specialists will be equipped. Additionally, the Company annually allocates financing for the purchase of fixed assets. The tasks of the fuel and energy complex cluster are to prepare mid-level workers and specialists specifically for the needs of SGC energy companies. For the next three years, SGC estimates that the need for such employees in the Krasnoyarsk Territory alone will be 350 people.
