On April 3rd, the USAID Energy Security Project (USAID ESP) and representatives of Ternopil City, energy companies, and the Ternopil utility sector met to discuss project ideas to introduce distributed generation at the city’s heating facilities, including setting energy islands to supply energy to critical infrastructure, especially in emergencies.
During the meeting, Vladyslav Stemkovskyi, Deputy Mayor for Executive Bodies, outlined the specifics of Ternopil’s electricity generation system and critical infrastructure facilities. He also informed the participants about the plans to build a solar power station, which is expected to meet part of the electricity demand of the communal utility (CU) TERNOPILVODOKANAL.
Andrii Chumak, Director of CU Heat Network TERNOPILMISKTEPLOENERGO, presented an approach to select boiler houses for cogeneration units, and the operation modes of these units during the winter and summer seasons, considering the hot water supply schemes in summertime.
USAID ESP has already preliminarily assessed the energy system in Ternopil City and identified some priority tasks to prepare the technical documentation required to assess the feasibility of including distributed generation at the CU TERNOPILMISKTEPLOENERGO.
Ievgen Glushak, USAID ESP Senior Heat Market Officer, said: “USAID ESP is developing a model for organizing energy islands while taking into consideration the capacity of the local heat supply facilities and the importance of maintaining energy balance. That’s why it is so important to connect the most important critical infrastructure facilities to the energy islands to ensure the proper functioning of the city.”
Following the meeting, the Ternopil City Council agreed to provide an updated list of the critical infrastructure facilities to be connected to the energy islands and adjust the output data required to establish the respective technical capacities. Based on these revised data, USAID ESP experts will produce a detailed concept of distributed generation in Ternopil City and prepare a preliminary Technical and Economic Substantiation (TEO) for this project.