Focused Practice

I. Answer the following questions:

1. How could the potential benefits of CHP in commercial building applications be more fully realized?

2. What are US researchers testing?

3. How much energy contained in the fuel for electricity generation is rejected as waste heat into the environment?

4. Where do further losses occur?

5. What can this waste heat be utilized for?

6. What efficiency can increase and what efficiency is reduced?

7. Can CHP also increase the reliability of a building’s power supply?

II. Analyse the grammar strutures underlined in the above text.

III. Speak on: CHP systems.

Unit 40 Grammar: The Attribute Word List:

1. combined cycle power plant	ТЭЦ – теплоэлектроцентраль, одновременно вырабатывающая электроэнергию и тепло в виде горячей воды и пара
2. 150 MW=150 MegaWatts	150 мегаватт
3. trunk gas line	магистральный газопровод
4. cooling tower	градирня
5. ancillary	вспомогательный
6. to house	вмещать, содержать
7. water treatment plant	установка для подготовки воды
8. backup	резервный
9. joint venture	совместное предприятие

Petersburg Combined Cycle

Western companies saw an opportunity to cooperate with Russian industry through gas turbine technology transfer. Siemens led the way with the creation of Interturbo, a joint venture with LMZ in which the German company held 45 %. While the prime purpose was to establish a production line for their 150 MW Model in the Russian market, it would also be possible to take advantage of lower production costs to supply gas turbines in other markets. In fact, with the slow down in the Russian market, the production line has been sustained with contracts for projects in India and Southeast Asia.

The ultimate customer for the combined cycle power plant is Lenenergo, which supplies power and district heating to the city of St Petersburg. They have 10,000 MW of capacity, including nine large stations coupled to the district heating networks. St Petersburg is the largest load centre in the northwestern regional grid of RAO EES, the State Power Board for whom Lenenergo operate the regional control centre controlling 30,000 MW of plant.

The main fuel for power generation in Russia today is natural gas, covering 70 % of the installed capacity, but the efficiency of condensing plant is no more than 40 %. The combined cycles will improve the energy efficiency.

The plant is built on a green field site at Primorskii on the coast and close to existing 330 kV transmission lines. The trunk gas line to Finland passes near to the site, and a spur line is being built from it to supply the new power station. The site was a coastal wetland which had first to be drained and then filled. Over 30,000 piles were driven to a depth of 12 metres to provide a stable foundation for the power plant and ancillary buildings.

All this had to be done for the consortium to gain access to the site.

In fact the consortium representing the non-Russian contribution, is responsible for slightly less than half of the total contract value. The building housing the two combined cycle blocks is a small part of the total site area, which includes a hyperbolic natural draft cooling tower for each block (of which only one has so far been built), a water treatment plant, and storage tanks for the backup liquid fuel.

Another important building, in view of the climate is a site boiler house. It will be used to heat the power plant building, the offices and apartments.

Northwest St Petersburg is the first of a series of combined cycles.