From 27 March – 3 April a team of experts from the municipalities of the Kaliningrad region and St. Petersburg made a study trip to Denmark and looked into the experience of combating climate change and introduction of international energy management standards.

The team spent two days on Bornholm Island, where local authorities adopted a strategy for combating climate change. According to the strategy, renewable energy sources will help to neutralize CO₂ emissions by 2014. The trip involved visits to a number of facilities including a heat power plant using wood chips. The plant employs latest techniques of heat power generation to provide central heating to the municipality.

Biomass represents another heat and energy source introduced to the participants. The Biokraft installation generates energy from biomass, mainly from manure and organic waste, producing biogas which turns into electricity and heat energy to provide central heating to the consumers on Bornholm. Sludge left after degassing is brought back to farms as fertilizer.

Russian delegates at the Biokraft installation

According to Vladimir Potapov, director at the Regional Centre for Energy Saving, such an installation can be used in the Kaliningrad region, since a number of big new pig farms have been set up over the recent years. These installations can help the districts with pig farms to protect the environment.

One of the meetings was dedicated to Bornholm’s participation in the project called EDISON, the largest project on electric vehicles worldwide. At the moment the testing and demonstration stages of the project are being prepared, since the island has a unique energy system which can be disconnected from the Nordic network. Bornholm is famous for the significant wind power share in the system, which amounts to 33%. The project will result in the development of technologies letting charge e-vehicles at the time when the system experiences excess of energy. This allows to use such vehicles as energy storage and return energy to the system during peak loads.

The municipal waste management system of the island also attracted the Russian team’s attention. Besides the centre for waste sorting and recycling, the system also includes an incineration plant. So, in 2008 65% of all waste collected was sent for recycling, and 27% was burnt giving heat to the consumer.

According to Taras Pavlenko, chief expert at the Economic Policy Department of Chernyakhovsk municipality, the experience of the visited energy saving facilities can be used for long-term planning of the municipality’s development, since the transition of current heat energy sources to alternative fuel is a topical issue. Chernyakhovsk municipality has been considering the reduction of resource costs on heat energy by means of equipment upgrading for a long time.

A seminar on introduction of international energy management standards was organized on the basis of the company DS (Danish Standards) in Copenhagen. Within 2 days the delegates could acquaint themselves with the management system, its main elements, integrated management, and typical problems in such management systems as ISO and DS. The key elements of standards EN 16001 and ISO 50001, which is being developed, were presented. Using the example of paint and varnish works, the process of energy management standards’ introduction and implementation was shown.

The seminar resulted in evaluating stimuli and difficulties to apply energy management standards in the municipalities and organizations of the Kaliningrad region.

Evaluating the seminar, Galina Chergichenko, deputy head of the Neman district administration, expressed the participants’ opinion by saying that the Kaliningrad region lacks a systemic approach to energy management and energy saving. Keeping the outcomes of the study trip in mind, the system of informing will be revised and explanatory work on energy saving among the population will be carried out in Neman municipality. Moreover, the expert responsible for environment and energy saving will also see the ways of work revised.

In June the Kaliningrad region will host the second seminar on the basis of one of the municipal heat power facilities. The seminar is aimed at exploring the possibilities of introducing energy management standards.

Contact information:

Natalia Khalyuk, project coordinator

Olga Kovaleva, project coordinator

Tags: energy, municipal cooperation