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According to the National Energy Strategy confirmed by the Seimas, in Lithuania the facilities for production of energy will be further developed. It is planned to build not only a new mighty fuel-burning block in Elektrėnai, but also some new blocs of heat and power plants (producing both heat and electric power) in Kaunas, Panevėžys, Klaipėda, Šiauliai, Alytus, Marijampolė.

In the plans for development of any energetic system, one of the most important factors is effectiveness. One of the ways to save natural resources and receive cheaper heat is to organize the processes of production in such a manner that during them no energy was lost. Such modern technologies will be implemented in the new Kaunas power plant, which will be built by the owners of the Kaunas Heat and Power Plant (KHPP).

 

‘The present power plant was operated for a great while, accordingly, more and more funds had to be allotted for renewal of equipment to make them work smoothly. For more effective and reliable production of energy, the owner of the power plant, the Russian gas concern GAZPROM decided to build a new power plant and to invest into it about 1 billion litas,’ states Antanas Pranculis, the Director General of KHPP.

 

In the territory of KHPP, the power plant of combined cycle will emerge and produce both electric power and heat out of natural gas. The capacity of electric power will reach up to 350 megawatts, along heat of same capacity.

 

 

A tender on contract for construction of the new power plant may be announced until the end of this year; however, the KHPP owners mentioned for several times in public that after the events of recent half-year they would be forced to assess more cautiously the feasibility of investment in Lithuania.

The investors worry about the changing investment terms in Lithuania. Moreover, the investment prospects are limited by instability in the finance sector of the whole world, as the banks raise ever stricter requirements for credits. Due to the changing situation in Lithuania, it is harder and harder to meet these requirements. As is known, last year the Law of Heat Sector was amended to make KHPP coordinate prices for heat production with the National Control Commission for Prices and Energy, regardless of the agreement signed before five years with KAUNO ENERGIJA, to say that the prices should be fixed according to the formula correlated with changes in prices for petroleum products in European markets.

 

 

The new power plant will have more advantages versus the old one. After the feasibility study of development of heat and electric power production in KHPP, the effectiveness of heat production was assessed as well. The experts stated that the planned combination of heat equipment will enable to use fuel effectively, with performance index up to 50 per cent for production of electric power.

 

To reach a higher performance index in the steam turbine, additional fuel burners should be mounted in the steam generator to obtain steam of higher temperature and to reduce excess of oxygen. Owing to these measures, the total performance index of the system may reach up to 90 per cent and even higher. That means that with consumption of same gas quantity of gas, much more heat and electric power will be produced. Presumably, the new power plant will pay back considerably quicker and the inhabitants’ expenses for heating stop increasing as rapidly as in case of the old power plant.

 

 

Recently in Lithuania many discussions go about rapidly increasing heat prices.

In Lithuania, since the season of heating, heat price took a jump of 40 per cent averagely, and in December in Kaunas the price will leap even by 70 per cent.

The KHPP chiefs think that the new power plant will enable the Kaunas inhabitants to decrease expenses for heating. ‘Thinking about the future, we shall strive that the consumers’ expenses for heating did not increase. As the resources of energy including gas become more and more expensive, for the avoidance of increase in prices for heat, we should raise the efficiency of production,’ told the KHPP chiefs.

The consumers would not feel so painfully the increase in heat price, if the heat transfer expenditure, which is included into the final tariff for the inhabitants, would be cut down. In Kaunas the heat transfer for the inhabitants is performed by the municipality-controlled enterprise KAUNO ENERGIJA.

 

 

One of the ways to decrease the expenses for heat production, as well as the inhabitants’ expenses for heating is to reduce pollution. Translating to life the policy of European Union, Lithuania implemented the system, according to which in future the producers of energy would be forced to purchase permits for CO₂ pollution. Presently the Kaunas Heat and Power Plant is one of the biggest stable air polluters in the Kaunas district, yet the prices for heat in Kaunas are smaller than in Vilnius.

The enterprise‘s constant trouble is reduction of conventional environmental air pollutants and green house gas discharge into atmosphere, protection of natural water bodies, saving of natural resources. The new power plant will be equipped with modern and EU environmental requirements conforming technology for production of energy. The automatic system of non-stop monitoring will control the amount of pollutants discharged into atmosphere. Such innovations will enable to reduce pollution of environment and fewer in number circulating pollution permits (CPP) will be asked for heat production of same quantity.

Now in the course of one year KHPP receives for free one permit for discharge into environment 560 thousand tons of pollutants. After construction of the new power plant, considerably fewer in number CPP will be asked for the same quantity of energy.

Jurijus Junevičius, the KHPP Director for Development, remarked that the situation will undergo changes after closing of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant. Then the available heat and power plants will work with heavier duty according to raised demand for production of electric power, along with greater demand for pollution quotas. But this issue will be on agenda of the new Government of Lithuania.

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