The contractors of Igor Sechin will help Sergey Kogonin to save on energy resources
The auto giant in Naberezhnye Chelny at Cummins's expense is going to build its own power station, which will cover 5% of the needs of the enterprise at 600 million rubles
One of the largest in Kama Region energy consumers — KAMAZ in Naberezhnye Chelny — decided to 'mix' 1.5 billion kW/h purchased from independent energy trader Rusenergosbyt with the own small generation. As it became known to Realnoe Vremya, the Kama truck manufacturer accepted the proposal for the construction of an autonomous power plant with Cummins turbines with the total capacity of 40 MW, which promises to cover 5% of its needs at a price 10% lower than from a wholesaler. However, the agreement with the strategic partner has not been signed yet.
It is not we who construct but the investor
KAMAZ does not cease to take measure of small generation, which under any price situation on the wholesale electricity market (WEM) turns out to be more profitable by the cost of produced energy. As the market participants told Realnoe Vremya, this year the management of KAMAZ has decided to switch to the partial provision of electricity through autonomous sources, refusing to transport energy from the wholesale power market. Although the price of electric energy on the wholesale power market does not grow and remain in the price corridor from 2.20 to 2.30 rubles per 1 kW/h, the Kama truck manufacturer decided to do an experiment and to test the effect from the work of their own generation.
However, the head of the press service of the auto giant Oleg Afanasyev said that the energy station will be built not on the money of the factory but on the investments of the Russian partner Cummins (the company name was not disclosed). 'To meet our needs in electric and thermal energy one of our partners proposed to build an autonomous generation source on attractive terms. The automative plant does not bear financial costs but guarantees the purchase of all produced electricity at 'frozen' rates. It will be 10% below the wholesale price on the wholesale power market,' revealed the initial conditions Afanasyev, refusing to give exact figures of the project.
'This is just a pilot experiment to assess the effectiveness of small generation, so its capacity is small and will cover 5% of the needs of the plant,' he added. In absolute terms, the power station may be far from tiny. Every year KAMAZ purchases 1.5 billion kW/h, so the estimated power of the station may be 40 MW.
The friends of Rosneft and Surgut will help KAMAZ
As Realnoe Vremya found out, the project of small generation will be implemented with the Russian engineering company, which built autonomous stations in the oil fields of Surgutneftegaz, Gazprom Neft, Rosneft. The total power of launched since 2004 generating facilities is 750 MW and of the ones being constructed — 110 MW. As a rule, the main equipment are the turbines Cummins of low power. According to the market participants, the company acted as General contractor of the Chelny station, having announced a tender to choose the subcontractors among the Kazan and Naberezhnye Chelny companies for the provision of services for installation of the station. It is expected that this week it is defined those who will join the team for the construction of the object.
Small generation is the most available way of obtaining cheap electric power, because a consumer does not pay for transmission of energy through networks. As a rule, the extra charge for transportation is 40 to 60% of the wholesale price on the wholesale power market, so if to remove this component, the purchase price decreases by more than 10%. If the station operates in cogeneration mode, the final electricity price may be even lower. According to the top managers of enterprises, for this reason, many industrial consumers in the republic are moving to the independent sources.
The first one who transferred to the autonomous sources of electricity and heat supply was Maisky kombinat, that grows cucumbers and tomatoes year-roundly. They developed the financial scheme of the functioning of small generation: in 2011, a private investor, the pension fund of Russian Railways 'Blagosostoyanie' invested 1 billion rubles in the construction of the energy centre 'Maisky' (electrical capacity of 23.5 MW, heat — 24.5 MW) in exchange for the guaranteed purchase of energy resources. However, after 4 years the Maisky kombinat unexpectedly stopped purchasing thermal energy, retaining only the consumption of electric energy. However, the investor did not suffer. The released heat was directed to the heating of Osinovo village.
I will leave, said Kogonin, and kept the promise
According to Realnoe Vremya, among those who fell out of the Tatarstan power system of heat supply there are some very large consumers of Kazan — Nefis-Cosmetics PJSC, Kazan Aircraft Production Association named after S. Gorbunov — the branch of Tupolev PJSC, the Kazan Motor Production Association (KMPO). Meanwhile, KAMAZ has also been fighting for the reduction of tariffs for electricity, and for a long time. A few years ago, the representatives of the factory complained that the costs of energy in a single vehicle in 2011 tripled — up to 100 thousand rubles, plus annual sales bonus to Tatenergosbyt is 100 million rubles. 'We are forced to abandon the purchase of electricity from the territory of RT and to sign direct contracts with the generating companies,' warned KAMAZ and kept the promise. After the termination of the contractual relations with the Tatenergosbyt, Naberezhnye Chelny CHPP remained underutilized, where deployed 165 MW out of 1 GW.
In 2012, the auto giant announced a tender to choose the sales company, the winner of which was Rusenergosbyt — the second in revenue Russian independent energy trader, belonging to the ESN group and Italian energy concern Enel (49.5%). Under the three-year contract with KAMAZ, Rusenergosbyt covered 100% of the needs of the plant in electricity. But with the launch of the small generation the Russian energy trader can lose 5% of revenues from the sale of KAMAZ, or about 600 million rubles.
'It is not the first time the small generation is in conflict with big energy,' says the source close to Nizhny Novgorod branch of Rusenergosbyt. 'All this time our company offered KAMAZ more favorable rates than Tatenergosbyt. Therefore, KAMAZ continues to work with us. The plant has nurtured the idea of their own generation for a long time, we tried to participate, but felt that it was not profitable. Therefore, we respect the decision of the automotive plant. Although, in my opinion, the difference 10% — it is only a declaration.' At the same time, he noted that the construction of small generation facilities — are single cases. If now the law will impose requirements on capacity reservation, this generation will be unprofitable. But they turn a blind eye on it.