Industrial Energy Efficiency Opportunities in Ukraine

As part of the energy assistance program to help Ukraine shut down the Chornobyl nuclear reactors, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) asked the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to identify and appraise industrial energy efficiency projects in Ukraine. The industrial sector currently accounts for over 60% of Ukraine’s energy consumption. Most industrial enterprises in Ukraine use energy very inefficiently because the former Communist system provided few incentives to conserve energy or even account for its cost. Since 1994, however, the country’s energy prices have risen close to world levels, and Ukraine finds itself saddled with very high energy costs. The Ukrainian Government is also under pressure to lower natural gas imports and reduce the country’s trade imbalance with Russia. As a result, incentives to save energy in Ukraine are now great, and the market for energy efficiency products is growing. The Ukrainian Government estimates that this market will generate from $700 million to $1 billion worth of new product sales by the year 2000. However, few industrial enterprises have the money necessary for large-scale energy efficiency improvements. Therefore, one of the main goals of this project is to help the most promising enterprises obtain financing for energy efficiency projects from a variety of financial institutions, or through new, creative financing mechanisms. The project has involved several site visits to different industrial plants in Ukraine to gather preliminary data on the facilities. Most of these plants are in the process of being privatized or have been recently privatized and are financially sound. Among the plants visited have been a glass manufacturing plant, a coke-chemical plant, a paper mill, an alumina plant, a tire factory, a food processing plant, an iron mine, a metallurgical firm, and a steel cable factory. Following a preliminary analysis of the site-specific data obtained during the first visit, a limited number of plants were chosen for a more detailed energy audit and financial assessment. Results of a detailed engineering analysis and a financial assessment of each plant led to a prioritized list of recommended energy efficiency measures. The recommendations made to the plant management at two of these facilities are reported here. In addition, audits were conducted at some of the secondary plants and their results are reported as well. Some specific technologies recommended in the course of this work have included installing a new Western glass furnace at the Gostomel glass plant, which not only saves energy but also increases the volume and quality of glass production. The gas turbine cogeneration plant proposed for the coke-chemical plant will use coke-oven gas, a by-product of the coking process, as the primary fuel. Some of the more generic 1 Operated for the U.S. Department of Energy by Battelle Memorial Institute under contract DE-AC06-76RLO 1830. energy saving measures that could apply to a majority of the industrial facilities include replacing an existing compressed-air system with high-efficiency equipment, upgrading the lighting system, and installation of heat recovery systems. This paper describes the process of identifying opportunities and discusses some of the recommendations made to the plant management at some of these facilities. The paper also provides an update on the implementation plans for some of the recommended energy efficiency measures.