Profil:
Orlen SAOrlen energy's cogeneration unit plans PLN 17 bln investments by 2035
Poland's largest energy concern Orlen's unit, leading Polish producer of heat and electricity in cogeneration Orlen Termika, plans investments worth PLN 17 billion (EUR 4 bln), a complete phase-out of coal combustion by 2035, construction of new gas and biomass heat sources, as well as storage facilities and the largest heat pump systems in the EU.
Orlen Termika currently owns the Zeran, Siekierki and Pruszkow combined heat and power plants, as well as the Wola and Kaweczyn heating plants. The Siekierki CHP plant is the largest in the EU, providing 58 percent of Warsaw's heat.
Almost 40 percent comes from Zeran, while the Wola and Kaweczyn heating plants serve as peak sources, activated, for example, during severe frosts. Currently, 61.6 percent of installed capacity is based on coal, 22.5 percent on gas and 16 percent on other sources, such as fuel oil and biomass.
According to the company's plans, coal will be completely phased-out in 2035, 81 percent of the capacity will be gas-fired, and the remainder will be provided by renewable sources and new waste heat recovery technologies.
As Orlen Termika's CEO Andrzej Gajewski told journalists on Tuesday, the company is able to produce heat from many sources and uses this opportunity to produce from whatever is most profitable at the time. It also plans to build heat accumulators and electrode boilers.
"We are implementing the largest investment plan in our company's history, which assumes financial expenditure of nearly PLN 17 billion by 2035. Our priority is to ensure the capital's energy security, today and in the future," Gajewski said.
The CEO recalled that the company has spent PLN 5 billion (EUR 1.2 bln) on investments so far. As he pointed out, this does not mean any changes in district heating prices for consumers in the capital, which are among the lowest in the country compared to other major cities.
Among the strategic projects, CEO Gajewski mentioned the launch of a heat recovery system from the exhaust gases of a biomass boiler at the Siekierki CHP plant. It has a capacity of 26 MWt and is the largest in Poland.
In 2029, Europe's largest exhaust gas condensation system is to be launched at the Zeran CHP plant. It will have a capacity of 150 MWt, which will increase the efficiency of the 500 MW gas-fired unit operating there to over 60 percent.
The company is also preparing to build a new gas unit in Siekierki, with an electrical capacity of over 500 MW and a thermal capacity of over 350 MW. The construction of a gas pipeline connecting to the gas transmission system is already underway. The unit is expected to reduce coal consumption by approximately 1 million tonnes per year.
As the deputy CEO of Orlen Termika Michal Olszewski pointed out, the construction of a heat accumulator with a capacity of 61,000 cubic metres of water has started in Zeran. Together with a similar system in Siekierki, the entire heat storage system in the capital is to have a capacity of 120,000 cubic metres of water.
As CEO Gajewski stressed, 2029 will be a breakthrough year for the company, as wastewater heat recovery installations will be introduced.
Orlen Termika has already signed agreements with the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management (NFOSiGW) for co-financing three such projects. In addition, by 2030, the company plans to launch heat recovery from cooling water discharged into the Vistula River, which will mean that the combined heat and power plant will no longer 'heat up' the river.
The entire heat pump system, recovering thermal energy from sewage and cooling water in Warsaw and Pruszkow, is to have a capacity of 247 MWt, which is enough to heat a city of 150,000 in winter, and is to be the largest in the EU.
wkr/ pad/ ana/ ao/ nl/
