With 35,000 inhabitants, Starokostiantyniv is an important administrative and cultural centre located in the Khmelnytska Oblast, 300 km to the west from Kyiv.
The heat supply of Starokostiantyniv city includes a share of district heating of about 60%. There are 171 buildings connected to the district heating system and, among them, 126 buildings are also supplied with centralised domestic hot water. Municipal Company “Teplovyk” is the only district heating supplier in Starokostiantyniv. It operates 14 boiler houses with a total installed heat production capacity of 72 Gcal/h. The total length of the district heating networks is 31 km.
Starokostiantyniv Demonstration Project – overview
The proposed project concerned interconnection of three local distribution systems and modernisation of one of the local production plants with one biofuel boiler for baseload production and one gas boiler for peak load production. The existing local pipe distribution network should be converted and most buildings should be connected to the network via individual heating substations.
The project was interesting from a demonstration point of view as the investment covered a substantial modernisation of generation, distribution and use of district heating in the system, from boiler to pipelines and IHS. The introduction of biofuel in combination with decreased thermal losses and higher efficiency would have reduced the use of fossil fuels. The upgraded system would have kept some customers without IHSs installations and would have demonstrated a way to combine customers with and without IHS installations.
The introduction of IHSs in the area would increase the quality of heat delivery to the connected buildings by enabling a heat supply concerning actual heat demand.
Starokostiantyniv Demonstration Project – details
The project area is situated in the western part of Starokostiantyniv city and includes heated areas of three boiler-houses. These networks provide heat to 53 separate buildings, including 10 public buildings, and one separate commercial object. Most residential customers of boiler house No. 8 and all residential customers of boiler house No. 9 are also provided with DHW. Modernisation of the three networks affects a total of 6,700 people who would benefit from the improvements in their district heating system.
Specifics of the Starokostiantyniv Project included:
- Installation of a biomass base-load boiler (1×2.5MW), a peak-load gas boiler (1×2.5MW) and a boiler house upgrade (No. 9).
- Installation of new transmission pipes – approx. 790 m of district heating pipes.
- Individual Heat Substations – Introduction of 30 IHSs.
- Network replacement – transformation of the pipe system.
The proposed investment was EUR 1,149,000 with a simple payback time of 6.2 years. The proposed financing plan was as follows:
- Total loan – EUR 500,000 (44%)
- Total grant – EUR 300,000 (26%)
- Total Starokostiantyniv local contribution – EUR 349,000 (30%)
Once implemented, the project was expected to benefit the local community by:
- Saving 3,880 MWh heat per year
- Saving 1,980,000 m³ gas per year
- Saving 1,000 m³ water per year
- Saving 3,800 tonnes CO2 per year
Current status
The project was previously in the stage of receiving all the necessary approvals in preparation for implementation but was rejected by the city.
Photo credit: city administration