How Vitebsk boiler houses are transitioning to automation and import substitution
When I was little, my grandfather worked in a boiler house, and his profession was then called "stoker." If he visited us after work, he carried the smell of smoke with him. To us, his grandchildren, his work seemed very hard due to the physical exertion, as he had to load the furnaces with black peat briquettes – the main fuel used in our area at that time. If my grandfather could see today's boiler houses, he would be happy for his colleagues – the engineers and boiler operators, as these workers are now called.
First of all, the fuel has changed. Today, boilers run on natural gas and local fuels – wood, chips, and pellets. In chip and pellet boiler houses, there is no soot, and sometimes workers are not even visible, as much is automated and programmed into computers, meaning constant human control is not required. "We have long forgotten the times when boiler houses were filled with soot and smoke. Now, our task is to automate operations as much as possible, but this requires significant investment. For example, building a new 7.8 MW chip-fired boiler house costs about Br4 million. Thus, in 2021, our enterprise plans to reconstruct three gas boiler houses, and, subject to financing from the loan funds of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the construction of a new chip-fired boiler house will begin," said Artur Amosov, Head of the Technical Department of VPKiTS, while giving a tour of the boiler house, which serves as a model for creating similar facilities in the supervised territory.
The "5th Regiment" boiler house is a neat single-story building, clean both inside and out. There is almost no noise in the boiler house, and any that might disturb the hearing is lost in the control room. Two operators work there, and only because some of the old equipment, which requires supervision, has been partially retained. They monitor the readings on the screen and make entries. I noticed that there is no smell of smoke at all.
A wood chip warehouse is located next to the boiler house. This type of fuel is fed into the boilers through an automated line controlled by a computer. The programmed system regulates the supply of wood chips to maintain the required temperature and ensure uninterrupted heat supply to homes.
"Burning wood chips is more cost-effective from both an economic and environmental perspective. As a rule, we produce wood chips from firewood, but when production waste from woodworking enterprises or trees from construction sites are sent for disposal, we shred them into chips using a chipper. We have two such units at our enterprise. Producing wood chips from firewood is very costly, but wood scraps, edgings, branches, and knots are excellent material for this. The price of wood chips is approximately the same as firewood, while pellets are significantly more expensive. However, the heat output of this type of fuel and the level of automation of equipment operating on pellets and wood chips are significantly higher than on firewood," explained Artur Amosov.
He added that the cost of one gigacalorie in boiler houses running on wood chips is the lowest. And in those that use natural gas, it is 2-2.5 times higher.
The enterprise is actively converting boiler houses to pellets. For this purpose, VPKiTS produces boilers for this type of local fuel itself, which allows the boiler house to operate without personnel and also to replace expensive imported fuel - natural gas.
The Vitebsk enterprise has 62 boiler houses on its balance sheet. Of these, 29 run on natural gas, 21 on firewood, one is an electric boiler house, and the rest run on pellets and wood chips. In particular, VPKiTS has a modular automated transportable boiler house, which requires fuel pellets. It is a considerable operation. The remoteness of some boiler houses from the enterprise reaches 70 km. Therefore, the issue of automation is acute: it will allow distant boiler houses to function autonomously and almost without human supervision.
VPKiTS purchases firewood used in boiler houses for heating the city and district from the region's forestry enterprises. About 47 thousand cubic meters of firewood are used annually. There is a whole set of requirements for such raw materials. The regulations are quite strict, and forestry enterprises take them into account when selecting trees for felling for heating. Sawn timber goes to woodworking enterprises, while other wood is selected for the needs of boiler houses. Alder, aspen, birch, ash, and others - any species are suitable, as long as they meet the requirements of regulatory acts.
The enterprise annually modernizes boiler houses or reconstructs heating networks to improve energy efficiency and reduce the cost of heat energy production. This year, the "Berniki" and "Vorony" boiler houses will be switched to unattended operation: one operator will be able to control them remotely. The "Oktyabrskaya" mini-CHP plant is being converted from a four-pipe to a two-pipe heat supply system. This will reduce heat energy losses. The effect will also be achieved through the installation of individual heating points with plate heat exchangers and the implementation of heat energy flow regulators for hot water supply. The reconstruction of the "Agros" boiler house involves the installation of boiler units with higher efficiency and conversion to wood chips. This boiler house currently uses natural gas, which increases the cost of heat energy. Another reconstruction project will be the heating networks in the Tyraspol microdistrict: here, the heat supply to private residential buildings will be decentralized to reduce losses in the heat supply networks.
Explaining the purpose of these measures, Artur Amosov noted: the difference between the population's payment for heat energy and the actual cost of produced gigacalories is compensated to the heat supply enterprises by the state. And the lower the costs of heat production, the less financial burden falls on the state budget. This means more funds can be directed to other areas.
"In foreign countries, the population reimburses the full cost of thermal energy. At the same time, every resident of the country knows what they are paying for and tries to save as much as possible, calculating the total amount of each service. In our country, not everyone thinks about state expenditures on socially significant services yet," explained Artur Amosov.
There is a good reason to think about heat and water consumption and revise your household habits. At the very least, try not to waste extra cubic meters in vain and teach your children to do the same. After all, everything starts small – with the family, and then it is reflected in the country as a whole.