Interview by Timur Utsoyev, Grozny. Exclusively to VK
Chechnya is still one of the main debtors of the state for consumed energy. In this list the republic takes the second place. The situation can be changed by alternative sources of energy. Today Grozny is going to develop geothermal energy based on production of electricity and thermal energy. At the time potential of geothermal waters found in the region are non-demanded and do not lay a significant role in the fuel and energy segment of industry. The deputy minister of industry and energy of Chechnya, Tamerlan Matayev, told VK about plans on construction of a geothermal complex.
- How the Chechen officials plan to use geothermal water resources?
- There is no appraisal of resources of geothermal waters in the republic. The information used to be gathered in the USSR, but it was lost. However, Chechnya takes the third place among federal districts and constituents of Russia on geothermal water resources; the republic follows Dagestan and the Kamchatka Region. They are not being used in Russia in a full scale, except for Kamchatka, as geothermal energy stations. Due to energy scarcity of our republic, we begin to pay attention to the problem of using geothermal waters. In the world practice the leader of the sphere is Iceland. The biggest energy station operating in Iceland today reaches 400 Mwatt.
To broaden understanding of functioning such facilities the experts of the Ministry of Industry of Chechnya visited Germany in January. They learnt about operating energy stations there. We have the same objective in visiting Kamchatka in next month. We also begin to consider using of our geothermal resources on the basis of exhausted oil deposits. The republic has dozens of developed mines which are in the liquidation fund and are not being used at the moment.
Today water is in the place of produced oil in Chechnya. In some deposits oil had been produced for more than a century. So you can imagine how much water is accumulated there. We can use it for geothermal energy station with the geo-circulatory system. It enables pumping out overheated water from earth and pumping it down back after it is cooled. This scheme was implemented by oil workers who pumped out oil and pumped down water for maintaining interstratal pressure. Chechnya sent its suggestions on using geothermal water resources to Kzhizhanovsky Institute for joining the program of energy modernization of Russia. Our suggestions include construction of geothermal energy station, construction of greenhouses based on geothermal resources.
- What is practical value of geothermal waters for population?
- At the moment we have full data of heat consumption by municipal buildings. These buildings are provided with heat by block-modular boiler stations in which circulation is provided by pumps operating by electricity. Therefore to provide these buildings with heat we not only spend gas, but also consume electricity. That overloads infrastructure of residential areas. That s why using of geothermal electricity stations will enable us to produce electricity and heat and lessen the electricity burden. However, Chechnya is behind the Stavropol Region, Krasnodar, and Dagestan in the sphere of using geothermal waters. Dagestan achieved the most successful results. Only in Kizlyar the project provides the environmentally pure and energy-effective system of geothermal supply for three micro-districts where 30 thousand people live. Chechnya doesn’t produce electricity. Deficit is huge – not only capital, but also the whole republic imports electricity from neighboring regions. We have to change the situation.
- When will projects begin to be implemented? And will investments be attracted?
- The Ministry of Industry and Energy of Chechnya developed the program of electricity development for the period till 2020. We plan to construct the geothermal energy station and the solar energy station. These two facilities are included into the state program of development of energy; they are approved by the Ministry of Energy of Russia. At the moment we define volumes of co-financing within their project documentation. Thus, we could present the project to any investor. We have also developed the republican target program on using non-traditional and renewed sources of energy in Chechnya for 2012-2015. At the moment we are conducting negotiations with one of German companies which construct geothermal energy stations. They have found our projects interesting.
