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Efficient distribution of heat for the Wroclaw’s district heating system
WROCLAW'S MPEC CONTRIBUTES TO POLAND'S NATIONAL ENERGY POLICY
Henry Manczyk C.P.E., C.E.M., Director of Facilities Management, County of Monroe, New York
In 1995 the Municipal Thermal Energy Enterprise (MPEC) of Wroclaw, Poland, avoided $7 million in thermal energy wastage and reduced air pollution in its area through aggressive operating, maintenance, and energy management strategies. MPEC (pronounced "em-pets") is Wroclaw's central distribution utility for high temperature hot water, supplying more than half of its populace and 14% of its distributed thermal capacity to local industries. MPEC's savings also allowed it to invest in major capital improvements to its systems. Its experience illustrates how Poland is rapidly modernizing its infrastructure, becoming a leader in east-central Europe.
Poland, a county comparable in size to the State of New Mexico, is located in east-central Europe. Forty-one percent of the total amount of energy consumed in Poland is used for heating purposes. This is two-to-three times more than the average western European nation. Poland averages 3,450 to 4,000 heating degree days per year, equivalent to 6,210 to 7,200 degree days in the United States. (Heating degree days are defined as the difference between standard room temperature and the daily mean outside temperature.)
The Country's high energy consumption results from years of central economic planning during the communist era, which meant state-controlled low energy prices, lack of metering for space and water heating and no incentives for energy conservation. Since the end of communist rule in 1989, however, fuel supplies and rates are no longer subsidized, forcing both producers and consumers to seek ways to control energy costs. There is currently a great need to reconstruct Poland's economy and infrastructure to ensure the improvement of the environment and energy conservation. New investments and technology transfers are key to advancing this process. It will be no small undertaking. The price tag for modernizing the Polish energy sector by the year 2010 has been estimated in the range of $10 billion to $18 billion.
Across Poland, dramatic changes in the structure and management of energy sales and supply have already begun. This is certainly true in the Country's fourth-largest city, Wroclaw, located on the banks of the River Oder about 344 km (nearly 214 miles) southwest of Warsaw. Capital of the region of Silesia, Wroclaw has a population of 700,000 and covers an area of 293 square km (about 113 square miles).
Wroclaw typifies what many Polish cities are doing to comply with the Country's national energy policy, formulated in recent years to increase energy efficiency, improve conservation and decrease atmospheric pollution - some of the heaviest in Europe. In 1988/89 about 4 million tons of SO2 and 1.5 million tons of nitrogen oxides were emitted from the country's territory per year, making Poland the third largest polluter in Europe (only East Germany and the USSR produce more).
One of the most heavily polluted areas is the so called "Black Triangle" where Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic meet. Powerplants and industries utilizing mainly lignite (brown, soft) coal produce about 20% of Europe's SO2 emissions. These and other emissions, about 75% of the total, are carried into Poland by prevailing winds from the west and southwest.
Poland's National Energy Policy
A blueprint for modernizing Poland's energy industry, the national policy includes three general strategies. The first is to eliminate the Country's heavy reliance on coal (most mined in the extensive bituminous coal and lignite fields of southwestern Poland) while increasing the use of natural gas and oil. It is anticipated that Poland's total demand for natural gas will increase from today's 10 billion cu m (353 billion cubic ft.) to 22-27 cu m (777 to 954 billion cubic ft.) by 2010. The national energy policy's second strategy is to increase the efficiency of energy consumption; the third is to bring national energy prices in alignment with those in Western Europe.
In Poland's district energy industry, price restructuring will largely be accomplished through the institution of operational changes designed to improve the efficiency of the Country's more than 300 district heating companies (total heating capacity of 52,850 MW), 5,980 other industrial central boiler plants and 265 cogeneration plants.
Wroclaw and District Heating
The City of Wroclaw boasts more than 1,000 years of history. Since the 10th century, the region has successively been ruled by Polish kings, the Czech monarchy, the Habsburg dynasty, Prussia, and the Germans until 1945. During World War II, 70% of Wroclaw was destroyed, requiring extensive rebuilding of its infrastructure. Today the City's major industries include Pafawag, maker of railroad cars; Odra, manufacturer of computers and calculators; Polar, an appliance company; and Hydral, which produces farm machinery.
Wroclaw's district heating system is also historic in its own right. Organized in 1961 as the Municipal Heating Enterprise (MPGC), a unit of the local government, it was one of the first such systems in Poland. It consolidated 112 local coal-fired boiler plants and a pre-war power station - the EC-I Wroclaw plant - that was converted to cogeneration (capacity 81.4 Mwt) and connected to the district heating network.
MPGC began to liquidate the local boiler plants as soon as their customers were connected to the district system. Until recently, 12 of these small central boiler plants operated in Wroclaw. Of these, two have already been converted to burn fuel oil; eight of those will be converted to natural gas by 1998 reducing emissions, and the remaining two will eventually be eliminated and their customers connected to the district heating network.
The original MPGC system consisted of 14 km (8.7 miles) of pipe and provided heat to 195 buildings. In 1970 a new cogeneration plant, EC-II Wroclaw, was built on the same premises as the EC-I plant, whose operations have gradually phased out. Eleven years later, another new cogeneration station, EC-Czechnica, and a new one-conduit district heating network were constructed, supplying an additional 290 MW of thermal energy.
Wroclaw's Old City Hall, built in 1333, is one of many historic buildings connected to the City's district heating system. Today, used primiarly for ceremonial purposes, the hall houses the oldest mechanical clock in Poland.
The Post-Communist Era
After the fall of communism, MPGC underwent major restructuring. The system's thermal energy production and distribution network remained as two separate operations. Under the provisions of Poland's State Enterprise Privatization Act of 1990, Wroclaw's cogeneration plants were combined in 1991 under a new entity, ZEC-Wroclaw SA - a state-treasury-owned joint stock company.
In 1993 MPGC, now responsible for purchasing and distributing high-temperature hot water and a minimum amount of steam to customers, was renamed the Municipal Thermal Energy Enterprise (MPEC). Ownership was transferred from the federal government to the municipality with a board of directors responsible for operations. Day to day, the company is run by a board- appointed executive chairman, assisted by finance and technical directors. Today MPEC employs 566 workers versus MPGC's 138 in 1961.
Figure 1. Total 1996 Capacity of Wroclaw's Thermal Energy Distribution Network.
Source MPEC Reports, per Henry Manczyk
The Distribution Network
By 1995 MPEC's distribution network, one of the largest in Poland, contained 427 km (265.3 miles) of pipe, most of it underground. It supplies thermal energy to more than half of Wroclaw's population. Fifty-six percent of this thermal energy is provided to residential customers and 14 percent to local industries. High temperature hot water is distributed to customers at 150 C (302 F) at a pressure of 1.6 Mpa (232.1 psi); the return water temperature is 70 C (158 F). MPEC also maintains about 1,900 utility rooms with mechanical equipment throughout the system.
In addition to purchasing thermal energy from Wroclaw's two cogeneration plants, MPEC also procures high temperature hot water from two industrial heating plants - those at the local Hydral farm-machinery and Polar appliance factories. Heating from these sources is supplied to inhabitants in the areas near the plants, namely the communities of Boleslaw Kszywousty and Jan Sobieski, located far from the main distribution system in the district of Psie Pole. MPEC's total system capacity was 1,465 MWt in 1996 (see fig. 1).
Distribution -System Conservation Measures
In 1994 MPEC developed and instituted an aggressive energy conservation program. It has used both demand and supply-side strategies to bring all parties into the effort to manage energy consumption and the associated pollution. Many significant improvements have been accomplished to date.
Automatic climate controls have been installed in 22% of the distribution network. Five hundred constant-volume control valves (pressure-differential type) were installed in the Czechnica conduit with an estimated two-year payback; additional valves are planned for the network's three other conduits distributing thermal energy from the EC-Wroclaw plant. New ball-type valves (positive shutoff) are also being installed in distribution substations to permit breaks in the system to be isolated, reducing both water loss and impact on the rest of the network.
Measuring devices have also been introduced into some apartment complexes connected to the distribution system. In some cases, flow meters have been installed at the entrance (utility station) before the heat exchanger. In other instances, apartment radiators have been equipped with cost allocators. Whereas heating costs had previously been determined on the basis of the area in each apartment, today they can be calculated based on the percentage of each unit's consumption relative to the total consumption reported by the building's main meters. For the first time ever, residents have an incentive to conserve.
In another improvement, MPEC has become more aggressive in repairing and maintaining the system. Repairs to major pipes in the network are now completed more quickly than before, reducing thermal heat losses as well as restoring service more promptly.
Thirty percent of the network's total thermal loss is attributable to poor insulation. Therefore, insulation has been replaced on external hot water distribution pipes. New underground piping is being systematically replaced with pre-insulated (mineral wool) pipes. To prevent ground water from damaging the underground insulation, the network's drainage system has been repaired.
The other 70 percent of the distribution system's thermal loss is due to water leaks. By emphasizing better leak detection, MPEC has reduced these losses, including through the use of dyes injected into the main network to help discover leaks. And, rather than simply fixing individual leaks, MPEC has replaced many old sections of pipe to further reduce the frequency of failure and loss. For about four months during the off season, MPEC now performs preventive maintenance on high-priority and high-risk pipes. As a result, in some sections of the distribution system, main leaks occur less than once a year.
MPEC has also instituted a predictive maintenance program, examining and testing network piping to identify where leaks or breaks are most likely to occur. Such leak detection and resulting repairs reduced hot water losses in 1995 to 0.64% of the total water circulated throughout the system per hour.
Rates Set Below National Limit
In 1996, to encourage improvements in the production of heating and electrical energy, the Polish Finance Ministry fixed the maximum heat and power rate that a district heating authority may charge its users at 23.66 zloty (ZL) per GJ ($9.08 per MMBtu). In Wroclaw, however, MPEC has set its rate at 5.67 percent below this national maximum.
For an average residential house in the City, this translates to approximately 1.57 ZL per square meter ($0.053 per square foot). The largest portion of this amount, 63%, is the actual cost of purchasing thermal energy from the local cogenerating station; the remaining 37% includes such costs of distribution-system maintenance, employee incentives and profit.
MPEC's rates are based on a combination of two types of charges: (1) a fixed rate that covers the company's overhead costs, unrelated to consumption; and (2) a variable rate, which is the actual cost of energy consumed and registered by the flow meters or a fixed charge of cost per square meter.
MPEC pays a 40 percent corporate tax on the difference between its costs and its rate-based earnings. The retained earnings - previously less available when all proceeds were collected by federal control - are available to MPEC for plant improvements, employee bonuses, etc. Local control of the earnings has proved cost effective and beneficial to the overall system.
Local Cogeneration Facilities
While the one-conduit Czechnica cogeneration station produces heating and domestic hot water for the southeast region of Wroclaw, the EC-Wroclaw cogeneration plant provides heat for most of the rest of the City via their three main conduits. Together these plants have a total capacity of 1,435 MWt and 369 MWe. Plant efficiency at the two sites averages approximately 76 percent. During 1995 EC-Czechnica and EC-Wroclaw produced 1,615,925 MWh of gross electrical energy and 12,346 TJ (11.7 x 1012 Btu) of thermal energy.
Conclusion
Vast improvements in the field of energy management have already been made in Poland. In Wroclaw itself, many people are laboring diligently to apply new technology and develop the country's energy resources, including Marek Rakovicz, chairman of MPEC; Mr. Jerzy Romaniszyn the Director of Engineering Services with the Municipal Thermal Energy Enterprise (MPEC) and Dr. Andrzej Olszewski, leader of MPEC's board of directors.
The dedication of these individuals and the efforts of MPEC's management and staff have produced impressive results in Wroclaw in recent years. For example, in 1995 MPEC's distribution operation:
saved more than 13,034,952 ZL ($4.7 million) through computer programming of thermal energy utilization based on outdoor conditions;
saved 6.3 million ZL (approximately $2.3 million) through reduction of water leaks;
achieved a net income of more than 14,744,500 ZL ($5.3 million), despite charging customers less than the national maximum rate; and
invested 19,789,600 ZL ($7.2 million) in its own facilities, equipment and thermal distribution network.
With its commitment to energy efficiency, clean air and use of American and Western European technology, Wroclaw will continue to advance Poland's national energy policies. Thanks to its talented energy professionals, Wroclaw's Municipal Thermal Energy Enterprise (MPEC) has come a long way since 1989 and is guaranteed a bright future.
Henry Manczyk, C.P.E., C.E.M. (left) is welcomed by Mr. Marek Rakowicz, the chairman of Wroclaw's Municipal Thermal Energy Enterprise at the MPEC headquarters.
Henry Manczyk has served as Director of Facilities Management for the County of Monroe, Rochester, New York since 1987. He worked previously for the City of Rochester as manager of HVAC and energy. Manczyk has earned several professional certifications as energy manager and plant engineer, and has been recognized by numerous professional engineering organizations for his application of state-of-the-art technologies and operating practices in municipal facilities. Since 1985, when he first participated in a technical exchange with colleagues in Krakow, Poland, Manczyk has written and consulted on that Country's energy issues. His most recent visit to Poland took him to Wroclaw in 1996 where he lectured on district heating concepts at the Technical University and the local district heating authority.
References
1995 District Heating in Europe By: Euroheat and Power (Pamphlet)
1995 District Heating in Poland Euroheat and Power statistics (Pamphlet)
Economic and Legal Information By: Polish Embassy 1996 Newsletter
District Heating in Wroclaw 1961-1996 By: MPEC, Wroclaw (Technical Brochure)
Environment Pollution in Poland, 1995 By: Ltc. Krystauf Marszalik, Director of Environmental Office, Ministry of Defense, Poland (NATO Environmental Clearinghouse at Defense and Environmental Conference 1995)
Wroclaw Advances Poland's National Energy Management Strategy
By: Henry Manczyk, CPE, CEM (District Energy International Association Magazine)
Wroclaw and its Region By Janusz Czerwinski (Guide Booklet)
"Is it Possible for Thermal Energy to be at a Lower Cost?" By: "Slowo Polskie" Newspaper Advertisement, October 22,
1996
1995 Finance Report for MPEC By: Municipal Thermal Energy Enterprise
Energy Conservation in District Heating Modeled on the Basis of Wroclaw Poland's System - 1996
By: Kszysztof Lenart from Thermal Energy Enterprise and its Energy Conservation Incentives 1996
By: MPEC, Wroclaw
December 4, 1997
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