March 1st, 2016! Irkutsk! Champions – 2015 team "Energy4-Irk" at the grand opening of Case-In–2016!
To let you know what a truly winning idea of an energy engineer should be, we suggest that you read an overview of the solution to the final case of the 2015 Electric Power League, proposed by the Energy4-Irk team.

How students electrified the Power of Siberia

A real economic or social situation that needs to be investigated, to understand its very essence, to propose possible solutions and choose the best one. To summarize, this is the definition of a "case" – a case or case translated from English. The teaching methodology, invented at Harvard 90 years ago, still works today. An example of this is the All–Russian Fuel and Energy Case Solving Championship, which has been taking place for the third year now. This time, its participants, who were already accustomed to competitions in mining and geological exploration, competed in the electric power industry league. In the final, they had to solve the problem of energy supply of the Power of Siberia gas pipeline. And the fifth-year students of Irkutsk National Research Technical University did the best, leaving behind recognized leaders in education in the field of electric power engineering – Moscow, Kazan, Ivanovo Power Engineering, Tomsk Polytechnic, Siberian, Ural, North Caucasus and Northeastern Federal Universities. 

"I was somehow calm about this event, I was sure that our people would definitely not return from Moscow without a prize," admits Vadim Fedchishin, director of the Institute of Energy at IRNTU. But the news of the victory, which arrived on May 29, was a pleasant surprise. After all, this is the first well-deserved success of future polytechnic engineers participating in the newly minted championship since last year. And the assessment given to Irkutsk students by the Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation Alexander Novak during the award ceremony is very flattering: "Today there are the strongest teams in the hall, whose participants will confirm their qualifications and ambition at the enterprises of the fuel and energy complex."

But the triumph was preceded by many events. One of them is the regional stage of the III All–Russian Fuel and Energy Case Solving Championship, which was held at the Irkutsk National Research Technical Institute in late March. The teams had to solve the task of modernizing the Novogorkovskaya CHPP, a real gas generation facility located in Kstovo, Nizhny Novgorod region, which provides heat and electricity to a large industrial hub. The initial data is minimal: the current circuit and power balances. The goal is to develop the most optimal option for commissioning the second stage of the facility and justify it to an authoritative jury, which included major industry experts: representatives of the Institute of Energy Systems named after 

L.A. Melentyeva (ISEM) SB RAS Dmitry Efimov and Viktor Kurbatsky, First Deputy Director and Chief Dispatcher of the Regional Dispatching Department of the Irkutsk Region Power System Sergey Klepikov, Deputy Chief Engineer of OAO Irkutskenergo Andrey Korneev, Associate Professor of the Department of Electric Power Plants, Networks and Systems at the Institute of Energy of the IRNTU, Chief Engineer of the Irkutsk Hydroelectric Power Plant (2003-2007), Currently, Alexander Afanasenko is an associate professor at the Department of Electric Power Plants, Networks and Systems, and Igor Kuklin is a leading expert at the Technical Controlling Department of JSC SO UES of the Regional Dispatching Department of the Irkutsk Region Energy System. The experts did not give any discount on the age and degree of training of the participants of the league in the electric power industry, among whom were second and third year students. "The winners, in fact, completed the diploma project on the modernization of the thermal power plant as soon as possible," says Fedchishin. They turned out to be Andrey Khamnuyev, Yana Kuzkina, Evgeny Polamshchikov and Yuri Vilkov, fifth–year students studying at the Department of Electric Power Plants, Networks and Systems at the Institute of Energy of IRNTU, who created the Energy 4-Irk team. 

The Helium Argument

Ten days before the final of the championship, which took place in Moscow on May 28-29, all participants received a task: to develop an external power supply scheme for the Power of Siberia gas pipeline. "The task was to determine the optimal route from the Chayandinskoye field to Blagoveshchensk, install a gas processing plant in Belogorsk and provide electricity to the entire complex, including the field's infrastructure, the pipeline itself and the plant," says Yana Kuzkina, who was responsible for the financial part of the project. Many large design and research institutes are puzzling over this. And I must say that Irkutsk students had a certain advantage.: They had the opportunity to contact specialists from the Institute of Energy Systems involved in this work, including Nikolai Voropai, Director of ISEM SB RAS, and Nikolai Ilkevich, head of the Laboratory for the Development of Gas Supply Systems. To be fair, we note that the other teams that reached the finals had the opportunity to get acquainted with the developments of scientists and designers that are publicly available, not to mention the officially approved scheme and program for the development of the Unified Energy System of Russia, which contains plans for the construction of lines and substations to provide electricity to promising mineral deposits.

Irkutsk residents took full advantage of all available information, not limited to the issue of energy supply to the Power of Siberia. "The case itself implies an extraordinary, non–standard approach to the solution," emphasizes team captain Andrey Khamnuyev, who got the role of project manager. – We considered many options and came up with several ideas that have become our strengths. The first is the separation, storage and export of helium. The second is the connection of the central, western and northern energy districts of Yakutia, which will increase the reliability of energy supply not only to the gas pipeline, but also to local consumers. The third is the possibility of socio–economic development of Irkutsk and Amur regions, Buryatia and Yakutia." 

Two variants of cameral routes, known from surveys over the past 10-15 years, were considered: the northern route, along which Gazprom contractors began building the Power of Siberia, and the southern route, which was discussed in the first half of the noughties. The weak side of the first one is that it runs through sparsely populated areas, while the second one has difficult geographical and geological conditions. "The construction of the highway through the Kultuksky pass and the south of Buryatia turned out to be twice as expensive: it is almost twice as long, moreover, it passes through mountainous terrain," explains Khamnuyev. "Plus, most of the highway runs near the border with Mongolia, which is not very advantageous from a strategic point of view." The price difference, according to calculations by Irkutsk students, is 384 billion rubles: 793 billion versus 409 billion. On the other hand, 350,000 people live in the "north", while 1,92 million live in the south. 

Therefore, the team from IRNTU suggested that it would be logical, without abandoning the northern route of the main gas pipeline, to develop smaller-diameter networks in the regions. This will make it possible, not only to export gas from Eastern Siberia, but to use it for the benefit of the Irkutsk region, Buryatia, Transbaikalia and Yakutia, as well as to involve small hydrocarbon deposits in the development. Another solution that has not been mentioned in competing projects is the construction of a pipeline for pumping helium, which can be stored in natural underground storage facilities near Usolye-Sibirsky. To begin with, it is planned to lay a pipe from the Chayandinsky field, which will be the first to supply gas to the Power of Siberia, then, when the full-scale development of the Kovyktinskoye field begins, the construction of another one. A similar idea regarding Kovykta has been voiced by high-level specialists more than once, in particular, Academician Alexey Kontorovich, scientific director of the Trofimchuk Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics, spoke about the storage of helium in salt formations in the Irkutsk region. At the same time, students of the Institute of Energy of IRNTU proposed to build a helium plant near Chayanda, which in the future will have enough capacity to process the resources of both fields. 

Unifying electric saw  

The supply of electricity, explains Yuri Vilkov, a specialist in relay protection, should be provided by both existing generating capacities and substations (in conditions of reduced power consumption, there is a reserve, in particular, in the Irkutsk region, as well as in the ECO of the East there are certain reserves), and new ones provided for in the solution of the case. 

Already at the final of the championship, its participants were given an additional task: to minimize the consequences of shutting down the Bureyskaya HPP due to an emergency situation and to ensure that its loss from the energy balance did not lead to disruption of gas supplies to China. The key condition is the absence of a repair reserve in the ECO of the East during the autumn-winter maximum loads. "It turned out that this task essentially coincided with the main part of the case," says Vilkov. – Since we have provided for the construction of a helium extraction plant along with the power supply scheme, we have built up a reserve of capacities. We simply transferred it from one power grid to another, as we have already strengthened the connection between them as part of the main task." The balance has come together: 800 MW is falling out, but the emergency reserve of the ECO of the East is 350 MW, 290 MW can be transferred along the lines from Tynda to Skovorodino, another 60 MW is an excess in the Amur power grid, moreover, the presence of a helium plant near the Chayandinsky field allows to unload production in Belogorsk and additionally release 100 MW. 

The systematic approach affected all sides of the project – the winners of the championship did not forget about the financial side of the case, having actually completed, albeit in a condensed form, the feasibility study of the project. They estimated the cost of creating the first stage of the power supply scheme for the gas pipeline system in 2015-2017 at 280.2 billion rubles. The second stage, which is scheduled to be implemented in 2017-2019, requires 63.6 billion rubles. The difference is explained simply: at the first stage, it is necessary to purchase basic equipment. There are several sources of financing for such a large-scale project. The lion's share of the costs – 70.3% – will be borne by Russian investors. The contribution of the Investment Fund of the Russian Federation, according to the calculations of the Energy 4-Irk team, will amount to 17.3%. The rest, according to their plan, should be invested by foreign investors interested in the supply of raw materials. 

Author: Egor Shcherbakov

A source: Siberian Power Engineer