Tallinn municipal energy utility OÜ Utilitas Tallinna Elektrijaam, a subsidiary of Estonia-based Utilitas Energy Group has officially inaugurated a new biomass-fired combined heat and power (CHP) plant with 67 MW thermal and 21.4 MW electric capacity in Tallinn, Estonia. The plant will supply up to 20 percent of the city's district heating needs.
Built by Axis Technologies, a subsidiary of Lithuania-headed Axis Industries Group, the official opening of the biomass CHP was held September 27 and attended by over 120 guests, including the Prime Minister of Estonia, Deputy Mayor of Tallinn, representatives of the Tallinn City Council and prominent power engineers.
This is the most complex and expensive project in the history of Axis Technologies and its greatest engineering challenge. Together with the client, we were able to work out a technologically perfect solution and are happy with the result achieved. Our team came home with new experience, which will be applied in other biofuel energy projects of similar scale, stated Giedrius Vaitkevičius, CEO of Axis Technologies.
With a 30 month construction time, the EUR 65 million plant is located in Väo District in Tallinn, next to an operating plant of similar capacity that belongs to the client OÜ Utilitas Tallinna Elektrijaam. The plant is adapted for combustion of lower quality fuels, such as logging residues and woodchips, whereas peat may comprise of up 15 percent of the fuel composition.
Axis Technologies, the project’s general contractor, performed turnkey construction of the plant. Most of the equipment for this plant was manufactured at its branch in Kazlų Rūda, Lithuania, using technologies it designed and tested in practice. The plant consists of three boiler units which, according to Vaitkevičius, is a means to enhance the efficiency of power plants.
We have installed three smaller capacity boilers instead of one 67 MW boiler. This solution will make it possible for the plant to supply heating to Tallinn according to its seasonal needs, be it an early autumn, late spring or even summer when only a small quantity of heating is required, he said.
Axis Technologies is currently implementing 15 projects in Lithuania, Latvia, Sweden, Norway, Russia and Ukraine. At the end of 2016, the first biomass-fired CHP in Kaunas, Lithuania started operations and other CHP plants built by the company also operate in Šiauliai and Alytus.
