Igor Shkradyuk: "Why is Mongolia Hydroelectric Power Station?"

Mongolia imports the most expensive electricity from Russia - during peak hours. And exports it at night, when in Russia the energy is cheap. For domestic consumption in Mongolia, first of all, it is necessary to replace imports from Russia to peak evening hours when the wholesale price of electricity is maximum. The difference in the minimum and maximum consumption is 240-330 MW and is growing faster than the general electrical consumption. Are there any alternatives? In the publication for the project #Spasibaikal, the coordinator of the Environmentalization Program of the Industry Center for Wildlife Protection, one of the authors of the forecast of world energy until 2050, Igor Shkradyuk.

Storage and transportation of electricity and heat

You can fix the situation by building hydro -accumulating power plants (GAES), which will store energy produced during the minimum hours and produce it during the hours of the maximum. The priority task is to build one or more GAES with a total capacity of 300-400 MW. The creation of such a station is on average half the cheaper and doubled faster than the creation of a hydroelectric power station of similar power. Environmental influences from the GAES are less and easier to reduce them when designing, since there is no need to block the rivers in the main course, and the size of the reservoirs are tens and hundreds of times smaller than the hydroelectric power stations.

The construction of a GAES with a capacity of 250 MW will eliminate the need for the central energy system in imports during peak hours. And the additional power of the GAES will accumulate energy produced by solar and wind stations and supply it during peak hours.

The inclusion of the GAES in the network will lead to the fact that the direction of the power transmission of power transmission lines will change several times a day. This makes even more urgent modernization of networks. Modern equipment will also absorb reactive power and reduce losses for heating wires. Preparation of a technical and economic substantiation of the participation of Chinese companies in the modernization of the Mongol electric networks is provided for by an agreement on a tripartite economic corridor signed by the presidents Elbegdorzh, V.V. Putin and Xi Jinping in the summer of 2016.

The sun and wind

The costs of the construction of solar and wind power plants fall, unlike coal ones. Over the past six years, the cost of wind electricity has fallen by 60%, and a sunny one - by 80%. The calculation per kilowatts of the installed capacity of the creation of both SES and VES in Mongolia is already significantly cheaper than the construction of the hydroelectric power station. With huge resources of the sun and wind for Mongolia, the construction of solar and wind power plants is promising. And since the Sun shines and the wind does not always blow, the construction of the SES and the WESS should be accompanied by the creation of maneuverable power, for example, the construction of the GAES.

For heating dwellings more promising than an increase in coal production, is the use of solar heating. For this purpose, it is desirable to create the production of solar heating systems for 20-30 thousand families per year. These products can also be exported to Russia, to the southern regions of Siberia. Mongolia can be promising for the business of installing heat-pump systems with the accumulation of heat/cold in the ground.

Primary energy: Where to put coal? - Let him lie in the ground!

Mongolia is between Russia and China. Therefore, in terms of coal export - it is in a less favorable geographical position than these two states. Russia is increasing the export of coal. However, it is necessary to take into account the environmental and climatic consequences of coal burning. Coal cuts and power plants have a great impact on the environment, and their elimination is a long and expensive process. Coal deposits are not where consumption is concentrated.

The coal time ends. The production and consumption of coal in the world reached the maximum in 2013. Over the next two years, coal mining in the world decreased by 4.1%, and in China - by 5.6%. Under these conditions, the increase in coal mining in Mongolia is commercially absolutely hopeless. Moreover, there is a risk of displacing Mongol coal in the domestic market. In just two years, the volume of coal imports with China fell by a third - from 322 to 197 million tons. In connection with the termination of the construction of coal power plants, after two years, China can become a net exporter of coal. And then nobody will need Mongol coal at all.

The fact that in November 2016 China began to impede the import of coal from Mongolia, reflects not only short -term political friction, but also a decrease in interest in imports for the future. At the same time, Mongolia has huge coal reserves - 150 billion tons in 320 deposits. What is important: Mongol coal contains a huge amount of combustible gas. The total reserves of methane of coal layers are estimated in the range from 68 to 355 billion cubic meters. This is the order of the thousandth share of all world reserves of traditional natural gas.

The largest reserves of methane of coal layers (53 billion cubic meters) are located in the layers of the Tavava Tolga deposit located in the south of the country near the Mongol-Chinese border. According to Erdenes Mongol LLC, these reserves are enough to produce 4 million tons (5 billion cubic meters) of methane per year within 10 years and serve it through the pipe in Ulan Bator. This amount of gas is enough to supply gas gas heating gas pipeline with a capacity of 1 GW (or transfer all the coal power plants of Mongolia to gas!). The project of coal gas production includes drilling wells, the primary purification of gas near the well (primarily the drying), pipelines from wells to a gas processing plant, the plant itself (separation from methane of other gases), laying the pipeline from the place of metering to Ulan Bator. The cost of the project is estimated at $ 634 million.

Given the fact that the construction of a gas power plant is cheaper than coal, from an economic, social and environmental point of view, coal methane is more acceptable fuel. The gas power station, unlike coal, can also have significant maneuverable power. In many countries, steam-gas installations are used to meet demand during peaks of consumption. In addition, methane in liquefied form is great for cooking, heating and as fuel for cars and diesel locomotives.

Electricity exports prospects

Since a lot of energy is required after sunset, the option of supplying power from SES to the East is interesting, to where the sun has already gone. After one or two time zones to the east are South Korea and Japan, importing more than 100 million tons of coal each. Therefore, great interest in these countries is the project for placing renewables in Mongolia with the transfer of energy to the east.

However, China has long been cool about this project, since the technological leadership of Japan and South Korea provided them with leadership in the Gobitek project. But in 2016, a warming of relations between Russia and Japan took place and became possible power transmission from Mongolia to Hokkaido through Russia. In the summer of 2016, negotiations began on the construction of the first Japanese SES with a capacity of 10 MW in the city of Darkhan.

On the other hand, China by this time not only accumulated the experience of building high -voltage power lines, but formulated an ambitious target by 2050 to build a global power lines that entangles the entire planet. Therefore, Chinese experts connected to the discussion of the project of the Asian super -ring. Russian experts also participate in this project, but I would like to see the great activity of Russia.

What to do to Russia?

Many Mongols, especially the older age, remember that Mongolia owes the elimination of the Chinese colonial dependence to the Russian, namely, the detachment of the military foreman (Cossack lieutenant colonel) Baron Ungern, who expelled Chinese from Urga (current Ulan-Bator) in 1921. From 1922 to 1991, the economy of Russia and Mongolia was considered as one. For example, electricity to eight Mongol villages located near the border was supplied from the rural electric networks of the USSR.

The collapse of the socialist camp and the USSR led to the fall of the GDP of Mongolia by a third. Soon Mongolia became a sphere of interests of foreign mining companies. The budget of Mongolia is very dependent on the prices of metals and coal. Now some of the Mongols want the greater presence of Russia in Mongolia in order to balance the growing influence of China. At the same time, there are nationalists in Mongolia, who oppose dependence on Russia even more zealously than from China. In Mongolia, there are also supporters of the Chinese of the entire economy, who see in Russia a hindrance to this process.

In these conditions, the best that Russia can do is offer the services of its companies and specialists, and such projects that will cause the approval of the Mongol society and its consolidation. It is also necessary to use the recently concluded agreement on the Russian-Mongolian-Chinese corridor to develop tripartite mutually beneficial cooperation in the field of energy, primarily cross-border transport of electricity and improving the network economy, as well as accelerated development of renewable power plants and localization of production.