Republican seminar-meeting on the construction of energy sources using local fuels in the Republic of Belarus in Vitebsk
Opening the seminar, the Chairman of the Regional Executive Committee, Alexander Subbotin, emphasized that the venue was not chosen by chance. Last year, for the first time within the framework of the annual republican competition "Energy Efficiency Leader of the Republic of Belarus," the Vitebsk region was recognized as the best region in the country in the field of energy saving. The Pridvinye region achieved such high results through the joint, long-term, and systematic work of enterprises and organizations, the regional department for supervision of the rational use of fuel and energy resources, and the regional executive committee.
– Based on the results of work for 2021-2023, the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee has fully met the target indicators set by the State Program "Energy Saving," – noted Alexander Subbotin. – During this period, 24 boilers operating on local types of fuel with a total capacity of 41.8 MW have been commissioned in the housing and communal services system at 11 energy sources. 29.8 million rubles were allocated from the regional budget for their reconstruction, and 7 million rubles from the republican budget for the financing of the state program. Currently, work is underway to reconstruct 5 boiler houses, converting 12 boilers to local types of fuel with a total capacity of 13.5 MW.
In total, the housing and communal services enterprises have 509 boiler houses on their balance sheet, of which 108 operate on natural gas, 387 on local types of fuel (including 88 on pellets), and 3 boiler houses on electrical energy.
The share of local types of fuel in the fuel balance of housing and communal services organizations, based on the results of 2023, was 74.2%, which is the highest indicator in the country.
– The relevance of this topic is due to the fact that the Concept of National Security was approved at the meeting of the VII All-Belarusian People's Congress. One of the directions in terms of ensuring energy security and energy independence sets tasks for the maximum involvement of its own energy resources in the country's energy balance. And this corresponds to the tasks set by the head of state in the socio-economic development program, – noted Vitaly Kretskiy, Deputy Chairman of the State Committee for Standardization – Director of the Department for Energy Efficiency.
For the timely commissioning of energy sources operating on local types of fuel, Alexander Subbotin presented letters of gratitude from the chairman of the regional executive committee.
After that, the seminar participants were acquainted with examples of successful implementation of energy-saving measures. The first facility was the "Zheleznyaki" boiler house, which heats the facilities of the sanatorium of the same name, educational buildings, and one residential building. The boiler house was accepted by VPKiTS in 2018 and operated on furnace fuel.
– We calculated the feasibility studies and determined that the transfer to local types of fuel – pellets – would be an acceptable option. From October to December 2018, we carried out the reconstruction of the boiler house. Given that furnace fuel is the most expensive, we achieved significant savings in fuel costs. The second component of the effect is savings in payroll funds. The boiler house operates without the constant presence of service personnel in automatic mode, and remote monitoring and control are possible, – said Petr Baranovsky, Director of VPKiTS.
Next, the participants were introduced to a large-scale project for the transfer to local types of fuel (burning wood chips) at the "Agros" boiler house of the Vitebsk enterprise of boiler and heat networks.