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Member of Kaunas City Council, an active opposition representative and former mayor Arvydas Garbaravičius pulled out an idea nurtured and mortified during the Soviet times, namely to lay the pipeline from Elektrėnai to Kaunas, which would ensure heat supply for urban heating. According to him, it may be done in one year.

 

In frenetic search of alternative sources of heat supply, the city government also has the vision of a pipeline connecting Kaunas and Elektrėnai. This idea fascinated the conservatives ruling Kaunas so much that the mayor Andrius Kupčinskas even visited Elektrėnai in order to meet with Pranas Noreika, the General Director of the Lithuanian Power Plant, who got retired several days ago.

 

Last week during an enlarged meeting of the Committee of City Economy and Energy, held at Kaunas City Municipality, it was resolved to request from the Lithuanian Power Plant an exhaustive study to evaluate the possibility for Kaunas to ensure supply of surplus heat of the Lithuanian Power Plant, which is currently used for heating the lake. Heat would be bought and later supplied to consumers by the company Kauno energija, but its General Director Rimantas Bakas has not received any feasibility study from anyone.

 

“Unless there are detailed technical and economic estimates, we are not able to express our opinion on the question in hand. Kauno energija would support this project only in case it gets clear that the heat would be likely to get cheaper to the residents”, the head of Kauno energija was careful in evaluating the heat supply alternative.

 

 

Why are the former and current Kaunas mayors starting to show their concern towards this project? What lies behind the declared wish to search for the new means leading to reduced bills of Kaunas residents?

 

As the media has announced already, currently the heat pipelines from Elektrėnai to Vievis are being laid by the company ENG, which relates to Rymantas Juozaitis, the former head of Lietuvos energija.

 

It is feasible that this company could be given another more profitable order, namely the construction of the new pipeline up to Kaunas. It is a public secret that the energy specialist Mr Juozaitis and one of the richest Kaunas politicians Mr Garbaravičius are old friends.

 

However, what are the interests of Kaunas conservatives in this affair? Reply does not require a long search

- Mr Noreika, the former manager of the Lithuanian Power Plant, believes that a half of the required amount (according to the advocates of the idea, project implementation would cost 400 million litas) may be obtained from the EU funds.

 

 

However, such ideas of politicians and businessmen are regarded by energy specialists as going beyond the reality.

 

Authoritative energy expert academician Jurgis Vilemas believes that the pipeline for possible heat supply may be constructed for 100 km even, but what matters most is economic justification.

 

“Elementary arithmetic – just like in Elektrėnai, there are similar power plants in Vilnius and Kaunas. Should one of these cities have no power plant, it would be necessary to calculate what is worth implementing – the construction of a pipeline or a new power plant. After all, the planned pipeline would be connected not to the new block under construction but to the old blocks of the Lithuanian Power Plant, which are older even than those at Kaunas Heat and Power Plant. The pipeline would need to be laid here and yonder

- in total 120 kilometres. In order to implement this project it would be necessary not only to construct the pipeline but also restructure the current Lithuanian Power Plant by reconstructing the turbines, constructing new heat exchanger, installing new treatment facilities”, listed additional expenses the academician Mr Vilemas.

 

According to him, the vulnerability of the pipeline is higher than that of a power plant. A pipe is likely to explode and, moreover, it seems to be more difficult to protect it from hooligans or terrorists even.

 

In the opinion of the academician, currently Kaunas is not lacking heat power. In 2016 EU will introduce the new requirements for smoke control. The current power plant will fail meeting such requirements. Mr Vilemas believes that it is better to construct a new power plant than reconstructing the old one. Riga has already constructed one power plant and is constructing another one. Such power plant has been constructed in Lithuania too, namely in Panevėžys.

 

“To generalise the above, I would like to say that pipeline laying project to Kaunas contradicts the five-fingers arithmetic. Some sort of interests seem to be protected. Possibly, a question to politicians should be raised – why is the liquidation of Kaunas Power Plant fancied?”, makes a rhetoric question academician J. Vilemas.

 

 

The independent energy expert Rimantas Zabarauskas thinks that the major problem for the implementation of this project will be the huge distance for heat distribution.

 

“Idea itself is worth attention. Earlier I was personally proposing similar ideas. Heat distribution along 50 kilometres is the limit. Denmark was attempting the pursuit of such a project. The pipeline should have feedback because a closed cycle should be ensured. Water would be supplemented with special additives causing the reduced water viscosity. Moreover, intermediate pumping stations would be needed. Diameter of pipes would be around one metre. Heat distances would reach 7-8 %, but, due to huge distance, could reach even 15 %”, explained Mr Zabarauskas.

 

Concern among experts is also caused by another issue: how competitive the Lithuanian Power Plant would be. Once the pipeline is built, it should come into operation at full extent, whereas the price of the major product, i.e. electricity, should be lower than that of competitors.

 

“Should the heat distribution to Kaunas fail in winter, the city would go into the regime of survival. Obviously, it would survive during less colder days, but consideration of this project should also take into account any reserve boiler houses”, the expert R. Zabarauskas warned Kaunas residents of the possible challenges.

 

 

Laying the line had been considered already during the Soviet times when it was believed that fuel oil would have been the most important type of fuel for a long time. However, even then calculations showed that such idea would not justify.

 

Associate Professor at Kaunas University of Technology Anzelmas Bačauskas contributed to the estimate of economic justification of similar project.

 

“Last millennium it was discussed whether it had been possible to implement a similar thing from a technical point of view. In 1996 or 1997 we calculated whether it was worth constructing the pipeline from Elektrėnai to Vilnius. Research revealed that it appeared to be too expensive. Kaunas after all is not closer. Obviously, Lithuanian Power Plant could generate the required heat quantity to Kaunas city, but the power plant itself needs reconstruction. In my opinion, it is cheaper to build a new boiler house than construct a new pipeline. The final evaluation, now as before, proves that the implementation of this idea is too expensive”, stated the scientist.

 

According to Mr Bačauskas, under the market conditions there are almost no links between expenses and final cost. Heat price would be the one the consumer agrees to pay. For example, Icelanders have laid a pipe for about 50 kilometres from the geyser and are already supplying heat along it.

 

“Hopes that the heat would get cheaper are just pipe dreams. A good thing does cost a lot. It is only possible to console oneself that heat would become cheaper. In order to do something we need to refer to figures rather than emotions”, said the Associate Professor at Kaunas University of Technology Anzelmas Bačauskas.

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