How young specialists helped solve the energy problems of the Far East

The League of Young Specialists has been an integral part of the CASE-IN International Engineering Championship, which is part of the Presidential Platform "Russia — the Land of Opportunities" for several years. It allows ambitious employees of leading companies in the fuel and energy and mineral resource complexes to gain new career opportunities, and their innovative projects give an impetus to the development of both individual regions of Russia and the energy industry as a whole. So, in 2020, young people developed innovative solutions within the framework of the City of Youth 2.0 project.

109 youth teams (374 people) representing 74 companies of fuel and energy and mineral resources complexes and six teams of young university teachers became participants of the League of Young Specialists in the main season of 2020.

The theme of the City of Youth 2.0 project is related to the technological modernization of energy facilities that ensure the sustainable development of Komsomolsk–on-Amur, the third largest city in the Far East, where mechanical engineering and metalworking are developed, including aircraft construction, shipbuilding, ferrous metallurgy, energy, electrical engineering, oil refining and light industry, forestry and food processing industries.

The project outlined complex and multifaceted tasks for the participants: young specialists needed to identify a list of companies that would be part of the energy core of the industrial agglomeration, formulate proposals for a project for technological modernization of a regional facility (they could be a production site or a company from the energy core, an energy infrastructure facility, etc.), evaluate a list of social, economic, environmental the consequences for the region from the implementation of the project and, importantly, justify the chosen decision based on the criterion of minimizing risks.

"In 2020, the participants of the League of Young Professionals solved the most difficult tasks in both the educational and energy fields, which go beyond the scope of a single company. Admittedly, they got a difficult project. The Far East is now a zone of special attention, programs are being implemented there to support the region, and serious efforts are being made to attract young people, engineers, and the best specialists. The pace of development should not be allowed to decrease. I think the guys' decisions will help prevent this from happening. I would like to note that the demonstrated projects reflected the points that are currently on the agenda of the heads of regions and energy companies.", – emphasized by the Acting Director of the Institute of Innovative Design and Technological Entrepreneurship of the St. Petersburg State Electrotechnical University "LETI" named after V.I. Ulyanov (Lenin) Natalia Trifonova.

Several of these projects, which Natalia Viktorovna is talking about, were in the qualifying stage of the main season of the League of Young Professionals. So, the IN – Energy team (a combined team of ID, YATETS, YAGRES) proposed a project to increase the stability of the energy supply system and its environmental friendliness. It provides for the creation of an automated heat supply system with distributed heat energy generation, as well as the construction of 18 modular boiler houses, a dispatcher center for heating networks. The creation of a single dispatch center will ensure the integration of management of heat supply and consumption systems, mutual reserving of heat supply systems, control of heat losses and leaks. At the same time, losses in heating networks will be reduced by 60 percent.

The members of the Karat team (Almazy Anabara JSC) seriously thought about the problem of energy supply, for which they proposed a construction project for the Nizhne-Nimanskaya HPP. It has a number of advantages: low cost of electricity generation, environmental friendliness, absence of harmful emissions, high capacity (600 MW), reduction of flood load on the Bureyskoye reservoir. The construction of the hydroelectric power station is designed to provide large consumers and the population of Komsomolsk-on-Amur with electricity and the necessary capacities.

"Our project also involves the construction of high-voltage power transmission lines from Nizhne-Nimanskaya HPP to Komsomolsk-on-Amur, the introduction of the Smart City system and the Smart Grid system. We expect that the implementation of this idea will increase economic growth by reducing the cost of energy generation, provide infrastructural conditions for the development of industry and the growth of investment attractiveness.", – says team captain Dmitry Pavlov.

And the "Team No. 1" (the team of ID, YATETS, Energosbyt), in turn, developed a project for the construction of the Komsomolskaya wind power plant. The guys assume that its main investor will be the companies RN-Komsomolsk Refinery and PJSC RusHydro, and the manufacture of the main elements will be implemented at the production site of the Amurstal plant. The positive effects of the construction of a wind farm for Komsomolsk-on-Amur and the Khabarovsk Territory as a whole include an increase in the number of jobs, an increase in net electric capacity of 67.5 MW, and an increase in the investment attractiveness of the region.

According to preliminary estimates, the construction costs will amount to 6.412 billion rubles. The project will pay off in 14 years and will be implemented in 2021-2024.

The experts were pleasantly surprised by the project of the Rostov NPP team (Rosenergoatom Concern JSC) under the conditional name "mini-hydroelectric power station in a container". Its implementation is due to the high demand of the population of the Far Eastern region for electricity. To realize an ambitious idea, it is necessary to have rivers that provide water pressure to power a hydroelectric power plant. According to the young specialists, there will be no problems with this.:

"The Khabarovsk Territory is rich in mountain rivers, which will ensure the smooth operation of the planned facility. The generation of electricity at the hydroelectric power station will be carried out by converting the energy of the water flow into the mechanical energy of rotation of the hydro turbine and generator", – said the captain of the team Elena Kopylova.

Remote monitoring of the HPP is one of the main highlights of the project. The staff will be able to control the operation of all mechanisms via a cellular network.

The Innovation Scenario team from St. Petersburg State University of Economics, after analyzing 13 generating facilities in the Khabarovsk Territory, proposed a project to modernize Komsomolskaya CHPP-2 using NTV technology. As the future engineers explain, the essence of this technology is that a vortex is created in the boiler, which ensures more intense combustion. Gorenje Thus, the fuel burns completely, down to the smallest particles. As a result, its consumption per unit of power of the energy load becomes less. The project will increase environmental efficiency by reducing emissions of nitrogen oxides NOx by 20-70 percent and sulfur oxides SOx by 60-80 percent.

The "Dr." command Copper, representing Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company LLC, predicts that within 3-5 years there will be a shortage of electric power in the Khabarovsk Territory. In this regard, young specialists have developed a solution involving the modernization of Khabarovsk CHPP-3 with the transition to combined-cycle cycles, the efficiency of which is 60 percent higher than the available indicators. The payback of the project can be achieved within 9 years with an initial investment of 35 million rubles. As a result of its implementation, the region will receive an additional inflow of funds to the budget, and will also be able to increase the reliability of energy supply.

"We also propose to consider the modernization plan of JSC Urgalugol, which includes the introduction of an automation system for drilling and blasting operations, remote and automated control systems for special equipment, monitoring and accounting systems, security, dispatching and planning, modeling and analysis. We expect that after this, the amount of fuel consumed will decrease by thirteen percent, and electricity by four percent," said team captain Boris Krechko.

The TATNEXT team (PJSC Tatneft) distinguished themselves by their project to modernize Komsomolskaya CHPP-2, which, in their opinion, will reduce the environmental burden, increase economic efficiency, and ensure the fulfillment of social obligations. Within its framework, it is planned to build a greenhouse complex heated by hot water from a thermal power plant, abandon the draining of hot water from a thermal power plant to Amur, replace coal at a thermal power plant with petroleum coke, automate and robotize some of the production processes, and aggregate data. A similar modernization has been proposed for RN-Komsomolsk Refinery: according to the authors of the idea, the company needs to be digitized and installations for the separation of vanadium and nickel from petroleum coke should be introduced.

The teams that demonstrated the most interesting and logically structured projects were eligible to participate in the final test. A serious struggle unfolded for the victory in the season, as a result of which the top three winners were determined.

The Smart Upgrade team (SIBUR-Neftekhim JSC) was recognized as the best. The guys from the Nizhny Novgorod region, having studied five solutions to the problem from the standpoint of environmental friendliness, social factors and economic benefits, chose to implement two complementary projects: the installation of flue gas capture and purification from CHP-3 and the transfer of the resulting CO2 to a greenhouse complex with an area of 100 hectares, which will be located in the buffer zone of the enterprise. According to the team members, greenhouse complexes with a doubling of the volume fraction of CO2 have yields of red peppers and cucumbers 70 percent higher, and tomatoes 55 percent higher. Greenhouses of this size can satisfy the demand for vegetables from residents of the entire Khabarovsk Territory. Other advantages of the project: new jobs and technologies, security.

Team captain Maria Kazakova spoke about the work on the project: "All the members of our team work at the same enterprise, but in different directions. We often hold contests where various tasks are dealt with, as well as educational events. We also worked together in one of these contests and successfully won it. Then we decided to try our hand at a more serious competition, the CASE-IN engineering championship. We worked on solving the problem for ten days. The remote format of project preparation and final defense did not prevent us from achieving the desired result."

The project was highly appreciated by a competent jury.

"The absolute advantage of the Smart Upgrade team's solution is that the related industry is developing, and this in itself is original. And ecological agrobiology is of particular importance for the Far East, because it is a zone of risky farming. In order to ensure the quality of life of the population, any proposals related to the use of energy resources are very important. The guys remembered the project precisely because a person was put at its center, it is focused on the development of the social sphere, well-being, and quality of life.", — Natalia Trifonova shared her opinion about the project.

The second place went to the young specialists of Gazpromneft STC LLC. The project of the Technogics team is notable for its short- and long-term perspectives. In the first case, for the development of an industrial agglomeration, the authors propose to consider a development plan for the Vanino-Soviet-Havana transport and industrial hub. In particular, it includes the unification of the two ports (this will give impetus to the development of infrastructure) and the construction of a new terminal. With a favorable outcome, the project is planned to be implemented within 6 years. As for the long–term perspective, the focus is on the development of gas hydrates, which are relatively new and extensive sources of natural gas.

"The Amur Gas Processing Plant is a transshipment point for gas transportation to China. The metallurgical enterprises of the region will be involved in supplying the projects with equipment. In this form, the industrial agglomeration includes: a scientific and technical center, a gas hydrate processing plant, gas storage facilities, and the Okha-Komsomolsk-on-Amur pipeline", – said the captain of the team, Anna Evdokimova.

The third place went to the NIPIGAS NEW WAVE team (NIPIGAS JSC, Sibur Holding). The participants considered the option of developing the Khabarovsk Refinery by switching the CHP plant from coal to gas, which will have a positive impact on the environment. They also did not forget about the region's electric power industry, for the modernization of which they proposed to transfer household consumers from a voltage of 6 kV to 10 kV, introduce a dispatching system for power facilities, intelligent video surveillance, predictive diagnostics of equipment, and the use of electricity storage devices. At the same time, the team's project involves the creation of a research center, the purpose of which will be strategic planning for the development of the region, providing production facilities with new technologies, studying the need for qualified personnel, developing educational programs to train specialized specialists, and creating a unified logistics concept for the development of transport infrastructure.

"The "City of Youth 2.0" case, which we offered to the guys, corresponds to important processes taking place in the industry and the country as a whole. It fully allowed the participants to present innovative solutions and express their civic position. I would especially like to highlight those projects whose authors have focused on the program of socio-economic development of the Far Eastern region. Many thanks to those guys who reflected in their decisions the potential of the solar energy industry in the region, which has a huge reserve. It is also worth highlighting the points that the participants need to tighten up. Thus, not all projects correctly spelled out the problems of the region, economic indicators, deadlines for implementation, and information on profitability. And, perhaps, the key mistake of the season is that not all specialists have worked properly on the energy core, the creation of which is one of the main tasks of the case.", — Natalia Trifonova summed up the results of the League of Young Professionals.

The season, according to experts, has presented many unique ideas, some of which have yet to be implemented worldwide. It will be all the more interesting for young specialists who have enlisted the support of industry companies, universities and leaders of the Far Eastern region to bring these ideas to life. And the main prizes of the CASE-IN Championship — new career opportunities and inclusion in the managerial personnel reserve of leading companies — will only spur the guys to effectively implement their decisions.

The 2021 Championship has become no less exciting and spectacular, and the main theme – "Sustainable Development", allowed the participants to demonstrate completely different innovative projects for the development of the energy industry and the regions of the country.

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