Energy Savings Projects – Case Studies

Novodvinsk invests in energy-saving heating

The children have already gone up for their afternoon nap but if you make it snappy, you’ll have time to take a few photos,” says day-care centre Director Natalya Bykova as she hurries upstairs.

Getting ready for the afternoon nap. Photo: Patrik Rastenberger

Neatly folded clothes lie on chairs. Added cosiness is provided by pastel colours, cuddly toys and beautiful murals. At the sink the staff is cleaning up after lunch.Naturally, the wide-eyed foreigners carrying tripods and cameras arouse curiosity. Flashlights go off and general merriment prevails. Children giggle delightfully at the opportunity of playing tricks on us. Strangely enough, peace is restored as soon as we leave the room to make a tour of the facility. Down in the basement, the municipality has had a new heat exchanger installed. The technical system was delivered by the Estonian company Eesti Termotehnika while NEFCO funded the project under its facility for energy saving credits.

Over the past few years, Novodvinsk,a town of 42,000, has made a range of investments to improve the energy efficiency of municipally-owned premises. More than 90% of the buildings in the town are connected to the district heating system and the drive to cut down on energy consumption is shared by all members of the town administration. Novodvinsk’s economy is based on the pulp industry - by far the biggest single employer in the region. However, as a result of the current recession, tax revenues are dwindling which means that many foreseen energy projects have been frozen.

“Despite the circumstances we’ve succeeded in completing a couple of projects this year,” says Power Engineer Anna Kulikovskaya of the Archangel Energy Efficiency Center.

Prize-winning school

Day-care centre no. 15 is not the only facility in Novodvinsk to have benefited from the financing provided by NEFCO. A stone’s throw away stands a 74-year-old school with a total of 333 pupils. This school no. 1 boasts upgraded boilers and heat exchangers, new thermostats and thermally insulated classroom windows. Corridors are lit with low-energy fluorescent tubes.

“We’ve saved around 300,000 roubles per year in heating and electricity costs, meaning that we’re able to pay for the project with two years’ savings,” says Principal Valentina Sivova.

Aside from generating cash revenues, the project has benefited the environment in the form of reduced carbon, sulphur and nitrogen dioxide emissions. The school’s energy consumption has fallen by over 59% and carbon dioxide emissions by 218 tonnes per year.

The pupils in a classroom we pop into on our tour are studying algebra. Environmental awareness is evident in other school activities as well - as seen recently when the school was awarded a prize worth one million roubles by the Ministry of Education in recognition of its achievements in teaching ecology and natural history. Among other things, the prize made it possible to set up an IT class with new computers.

Art school buys new synthesizers

That investments in the environment make sense is nothing new to Principal Svetlana Zadvornaya, Head of the local art school that offers club activities for school children and young people in the afternoons. Over 500 pupils study subjects such as visual arts, dance, choreography, choir singing or take piano lessons at the school. Parents pay for about 20% of the costs - equivalent to a monthly expenditure of 300 to 500 roubles depending
on the subject involved.

“Thanks to the upgrading of the school’s boiler and reduced energy consumption, we’ve been able to make major savings as the energy bills no longer impose such a burden on our finances as in the past. Savings benefit the pupils in many ways. For example, we’ve bought new synthesizers and outsourced cleaning services with the money we’ve saved,” says Zadvornaya.

The art school has evolved into a sort of hub for local residents who long for cultural pursuits. It is not only pupils who spend time in the building. On the ground floor, painter Pavel Leshukov is busy hanging his watercolours and oil paintings for the opening of an exhibition scheduled for the same week.

“I love the wooden houses built in the traditional style with their heavy floorboards and beautiful cut details. I’m lucky that there are many of them here in the Archangel region as they give me energy,” reflects Leshukov.

Warmer classrooms with less energy - Case study from Petrozavodsk

In the outskirts of Petrozavodsk, old and new alternate as we visit school number 4. Around the school, beautiful but worn Karelian wooden villas vie for space with modern luxury high rises and yellow brick facades. The tooth of time is not gentle at these latitudes.

Learning English at School number 4 in Petrozavodsk, Russia

"We have a total of 520 students in the school. Regrettably, students used to have to wear their overcoats in class to keep from shivering. Now it's warm and comfortable here, which helps the students concentrate on the teaching," says Sergey Pavlovich, the school director, as he leads us on a tour of the school.

The school is part of a larger project to up-grade the heating plants and improve the insulation of a total of 114 schools and day-care centres in Karelia. Three of these schools are in Petrozavodsk. At school number 4, they have put in new heat exchangers, rebuilt the local heating plant and insulated pipes and windows, all of which saves money and energy.
NEFCO has financed the project from its energy saving fund. The project was also supported by the city of Petrozavodsk. NEFCO has provided financing for the modernisation projects of a total of 23 buildings in Karelia.

"A single school project can have a very big impact on the environment. We have calculated that the project at school number 4 reduced carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 111 tonnes per year by cutting energy consumption," says Alexey Smirnov, who works for the local energy efficiency centre in Petrozavodsk.

He adds that in many cases reductions will be larger if they invest in changing over from heavy fuel oil or coal to a bio fuel.

Currently 12 school and day-care buildings have been selected for future projects in the Kondopoga district. Alexey Smirnov says that plans exist to modernise boilers in hospitals and schools in Sordavala, too.

Kotlas Social Sphere Facilities, Archangel

The project included upgrading of heating systems in 32 schools and kindergartens by installation of new heat sub-centrals, automatic temperature control, thermostatic valves, automatic temperature set-back at weekends and upgrading of heat pipes 900 m in district heating system

Investment cost: 10,3 mRUB

Savings:
Financial savings: 2,5 mRUB/a, Payback: 4 years, Natural gas 440t/a, CO2 emissions reduction by 1100t/a, Heat Energy 3720 Gca/a

Modernisation of Velsk Street Lighting System, Archangel

The project includes replacement of 1200 mercury lamps for street illumination with energy saving sodium lamps in the town of Velsk. The investment includes an integrated automated street lighting control system and modernization of transformer sub stations.

Investment cost: 3,8 mRUB

Soft loan: 3,4 mRUB

Savings:
Financial savings 871 000 RUB/a, payback 4,4 years, Energy 261 000 kWh/a, CO2 reductions by approx 200 t/a.

Introduction

Projects