Feature
Story
Rehabilitation in Russia:
Murmansk systems prepare
for upgrade
Bernt Andersson, President, Golden Forest AB
In Russia, up to 70 percent of the country’s heating market is served by district
heating systems. Every city, town and village has a district heating network, with
heat energy generated by boiler plants or
combined heat and power (CHP) installations. In many cases, the CHP plants are
part of industrial operations that used
to utilize the other forms of energy –
power, steam and hot water – that were
cogenerated on site. Since the collapse of
the Soviet Union, however, when many
industries shut down, these industrial
CHP operations now only supply heat to
connected apartment buildings.
Not only do [Russian district
heating plants] often suffer from
poor construction quality, but
there have also not been enough
funds available to properly
maintain the systems…
Nationwide there are 585 thermal
power stations that provide all or part of
their waste thermal energy as district
heating; 188,700 district heating plants;
600,000 autonomous heat-generating
units that supply thermal energy to
smaller district heating networks; and a
total of approximately 260,000 km
(161,460 mi) of district heating pipelines.
In general, Russian district heating
plants, networks and substations are in
bad shape. Not only do they often suffer
from poor construction quality, but there
have also not been enough funds available
to properly maintain the systems, which
by now are between 30 and 40 years old.
Such is the case in Murmansk,
Russia, the world’s largest city inside the
Arctic Circle. The city’s Leninsky district
is home to two aging district heating
systems slated for rehabilitation during
2005. Their example helps illustrate the
challenges faced by systems elsewhere
across the country today.
Financial Problems
Typically, Russian district heating
companies are owned by the municipality
or the regional government (‘Oblast’). In
general, these companies are ‘unitary
enterprises’ that do not own the assets
they are operating, although the assets
Courtesy Golden Forest AB. Photo Bernt Andersson.
Throughout Russia, aging district heating networks – including this one in Murmansk – are in need of rehabilitation. Poor original construction quality and a lack of funds for maintenance and repair have contributed
to the problem.
