The light doesn't smell

Moscow is ready to generate energy from sewage water

Realizing that in conditions of inflation and declining incomes, even a hint of an additional increase in utility bills could cause protests among Muscovites, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov decided to remain committed to the principles of social populism. Yesterday, the capital's mayor criticized the program proposed by the fuel and energy department to improve the reliability of electricity supply to municipal facilities, since its implementation would require a new change in electricity tariffs. The mayor considered that now the townspeople cannot bear even a small part of the additional costs of energy and utility workers for upgrading equipment. But Mr. Luzhkov suggested looking for new sources of energy. Speaking yesterday at the international conference “Clean Water”, he presented his vision of the principles of energy stability of municipal enterprises. According to the mayor of Moscow, the State Unitary Enterprise "Mosvodokanal" in the very near future can switch to self-sufficiency in electricity using mini-thermal power plants operating on biological gas produced from sewage.

“In the coming days, gas production from the solid part of sewage will be turned on,” Mr. Luzhkov demonstrated a detailed knowledge of the technology. As the press service of Mosvodokanal explained to Vremya Novostey, the first installation in Russia using alternative methods of generating electricity should indeed be launched on January 31 at one of the largest aeration stations in the city - the Kuryanovsky treatment plant in the southeast of the capital ( 3 million cubic meters per day). According to the general director of the State Unitary Enterprise Mosvodokanal Stanislav Khramenkov, the mini-thermal power plant is expected to produce 10 MW of electricity and 8 MW of heat, which will provide up to 50% of the aeration station’s own needs. In this case, Mosvodokanal is confident that no external power outages will stop the water purification process.

Actually, it is Mosvodokanal, along with ten other city utility and energy supply enterprises, that now needs to modernize power plants, says the head of the capital’s fuel and energy department, Evgeny Sklyarov. “The power supply scheme for 30% of Mosvodokanal facilities does not correspond to the 1st category of reliability,” says the program he presented yesterday at a meeting of the city government. According to the Department of Fuel and Energy Economy, a significant part of the energy sector of Mosgortrans, the Moscow Metro, Mosgaz, MOEK and MTK has also become obsolete. Therefore, even with a “positive balance of electrical power in the Moscow energy system,” Mr. Sklyarov does not undertake to guarantee the stability of the operation of urban transport and other enterprises that support the life of the metropolis.

According to rough estimates by energy officials, modernizing the equipment of these operating organizations will cost 3-4 billion rubles. At the same time, according to Mr. Sklyarov, if organizations replace outdated networks and substations themselves, modernization will drag on indefinitely. This is precisely how the head of the fuel and energy department explained his proposal to “take into account the costs of re-equipment in tariff regulation.”

However, fearing “innuendo and the appearance of an informational reason to excite the population,” Yuri Luzhkov said that the city program should not be in any way connected with an increase in electricity tariffs. “This (re-equipment. - Ed. ) should be an internal obligation of the industry and should be carried out in the budget financing mode,” the mayor emphasized and sent the energy sector modernization program for revision.

Yulia KHOMCHENKO