The city of Baikalsk will not become a green city with an old and very environmentally unfriendly boiler house at the BPPM. Baikal.Center LLC, a subsidiary of the state corporation VEB.RF, suggests switching the city to electric power generation. They plan to split Baikalsk into 10 microdistricts and build an electric boiler house in each one.
Every boiler house, with a capacity of 185 MW, will have modern induction electric boilers with thermal energy storage tanks and lay about 80 kilometers of heat distribution networks.
Sounds impressive, doesn't it? Sorry to disappoint you.
If we examine the numbers and the situation on a larger scale, we will see that the concept of electric boiler houses is not as excellent as it seems, and it does not show concern for the environment. But it involves a lot of money.
Let's examine it closely. Ten electric boiler houses of 185 megawatts equate to nearly two thousand megawatts of electricity.
For a town with a population of 12.5 thousand people, this is excessive and impractical, even considering the planned population growth. To clarify, the capacity of the Irkutsk hydroelectric power station is 687 megawatts, the Novo-Irkutsk coal thermal power plant is 708 megawatts, the Gusinoozerskaya state district power plant is 1190 megawatts. This is the first question for the developers of this clever plan (that is, VEB.RF).
The second issue concerns the electricity supply for the stations. There are no such energy capacities in close proximity (Irkutsk is 150 kilometers away, Gusinoozersk is about 300 kilometers in a straight line through Khamar-Daban).
Also, it's important to understand that the Novo-Irkutsk CHPP and the Irkutsk HPP are operating at full capacity and do not have excess electricity. The Gusinoozerskaya GRES supplies Ulan-Ude and is exported to Mongolia, so it is not feasible to connect to it either.
The third question is about the cost of this remarkable initiative. One kilowatt/hour costs slightly more than a ruble, rounding up. A megawatt will cost a thousand rubles, and two thousand megawatts per day will cost 48 million rubles, or half a billion rubles a year. Consider these figures, gentlemen. Neither the city budget nor the regional budget can afford such expenses.
But wait, there's a fourth question for Baikal Center and VEB. First, it is necessary to expand the heating network. This entails digging a 3-meter deep trench that is about 80 kilometers long. Pipes need to be laid, insulated, and then buried back.
Laying a 500-millimeter pipe with insulation costs about two thousand rubles per meter on the market. This amounts to 160 million just for the pipes. Earthworks will cost five times more. This means that a billion will need to be spent only on laying pipes, without even considering the equipment of the boiler houses themselves.
Investments in Baikalsk are already substantial, and the federal government will not provide funding due to the lack of feasibility and low probability of implementation (remember, there is simply nowhere to acquire electricity from). However, the budget will cover the plan's development and the futile attempts to implement it, but some of the money will end up in the pockets of the initiators.
