What will cities drown? The replacement of Russian gas will cost billions in Prague and Brno
The Minister of Industry Jozef Síkela (STAN) reassures that even if the Kremlin completely stopped gas supplies to the Czech Republic, households would never be without it. Nevertheless, some cities, including Prague and Brno, have already decided how to do without this strategic raw material – or with what and how to replace it so that they can heat up in the winter months and families have something to cook on.
The problem is not so much family houses, which can switch to heating with heat pumps, for example, but mainly apartment buildings and panels with a common gas boiler room or heating plant. It will not be cheap, the transition to other sources will cost the city treasury billions of crowns, even if part of the costs cover state and European subsidies.
For example, in Prague, natural gas is mainly used for heating. It is purchased by approximately 180,000 households and dozens of other institutions and companies. The whole city therefore has approximately one tenth of the total gas consumption in the Czech Republic. The Deputy Mayor of Prague, Petr Hlubuček (United Forces for Prague), has already stated that increasing energy self-sufficiency has become an absolute priority after the Russian attack on Ukraine. “It is not just about energy security, but also about ensuring a sustainable energy price for the population,” Hlubuček remarked.
Heat pumps or biomethane
District heating of Prague households is one of the areas on which the Prague management wants to focus. He has very bold plans. It is mainly concentrated on Císařský ostrov, where the Central Wastewater Treatment Plant is located. The city wants to build a separate energy center there, which will use a series of large-capacity heat pumps to obtain heat energy from wastewater. First to the nearby districts of Dejvice and Veleslavín, then also to Holešovice and to the territory of Bubny-Zátory.
If this plan comes out, the Prague Energy Center will become the largest facility for the production of heat (and possibly cold) from heat pumps in the country. It should be done in a matter of years, and the heat pumps should be powered by photovoltaic panels. The capital also wants to obtain its own gas resources, but not natural gas. “We have already pushed for the creation of a biomethane plant at the Central Wastewater Treatment Plant, and the first stage will be put into operation this year, and if it proves to be economically efficient, its capacity can increase several times over time,” said Deputy Hlubuček.
The so-called digestion tanks, which are located roughly in the middle of Střelecký Island, are used for the production of biomethane. Biomethane is a full-fledged replacement for conventional natural gas, but you can also use it as a car fuel. “As the second own source of ecological biomethane, we want our own biogas plant for the processing of sorted bio-components of municipal waste, which could be put into operation around 2025,” added Hlubuček.
The city council has already agreed to this plan. The station could produce tens of thousands of tons of biomethane per year. “Municipal waste biogas plants are an integral part of urban waste management in Western and Northern Europe. Good examples can be found in Oslo, Berlin, Hamburg, Milan or Vienna. Energy in the form of biomethane is often used here, for example, as fuel for city buses or municipal service trucks, “said Patrik Roman, CEO of Prague Services, some time ago.
The opposition is rather critical of the current plans. “According to the management of Prague, the solution is to update the climate plan approved by them, which did not reduce oxide emissions by even a gram in three years. I support the intention to use alternative energy sources, but the only thing we now see from the current town hall management is the destabilization of Pražská plynárenská, which we warned in vain last year to respond to rising stock market prices.
It now threatens to accept clients with negative margins. What I really like to see is the work of Petr Fiala on the resumption of negotiations on the Stork II pipeline and the effort to purchase part of the capacity of future LNG terminals in Poland, “said Bohuslav Svoboda (ODS), leader of the Spolka candidate for the autumn municipal elections and candidate for mayor of Prague.
According to the Prague representative Patrik Nacher (YES), it is necessary to implement the Climate Plan of the capital, which envisages expenditures until 23030 in the amount of 230 billion crowns. Deputy Hlubuček promised that he would like to submit the update to the Prague Council and subsequently to the City Council by the beginning of the summer.
Dukovany hot water pipeline
To reduce its dependence on Russian gas, Brno dusted off old plans to build a hot water pipeline from the Dukovany nuclear power plant. In the Moravian metropolis, the share of gas in heat production now accounts for eighty percent, the remaining twenty with waste incineration in the SAKO Brno company.
With the expansion of technologies in the operation of Brno-sever heating plants by a biomass boiler and an increase in the capacity of the municipal incinerator, from 2025 onwards, about half of the current amount of gas would be sufficient to ensure heat supply.
From direct heaters to pumps
The diversion from gas is another closing chapter in the heating of Czech households. In the early 1990s, the state first subsidized the purchase and installation of direct heaters as an ecological method of heating. Soon, however, electric heating became more expensive for households. This was followed by widespread gasification, which the state subsidized with billions of crowns. He is now stepping away from supporting gas heating and redirecting so-called boiler subsidies to support heat pumps. On the other hand, experts point out that the transition to more environmentally friendly heating, including gas heating, has helped to significantly clean up the air in the Czech Republic. For example, the State Institute of Public Health in Teplice stated in its study years ago that in the north-western Bohemia alone, cleaner cleaners saved several thousand human lives between 1995 and 2004.
“Chip production would cover about fifteen to twenty percent, heat from SAKO Brno would provide thirty percent,” says Petr Fajmon, CEO of Tepláren Brno. And if the hot water pipeline from Dukovany was brought to the city, which would be the focus of Teplárna Brno, the Moravian metropolis would be energy self-sufficient. Teplárny Brno supplies heat to one hundred thousand households with an estimated 250,000 people. At the same time, about 380,000 people live in Brno.
The idea of a hot water pipeline arose in the past, and a feasibility study was even carried out in 2008, but two years later the project was suspended because the city was unable to guarantee a sufficient need. After the Russian aggression in Ukraine, the situation changed significantly. “Like Brno, we are dependent on Russian gas. We cannot say what the price of gas will be and whether gas from Russia will travel to us. We have no security of gas supplies from Russia, “said Mayor Markéta Vaňková (ODS).
I am already talking about this plan with Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) and also with the head of CEZ Group Daniel Beneš. “If there are suitable conditions for the production of electricity and heat at the same time, this is an opportunity that we must seize. It is also a path to energy self-sufficiency for the Moravian metropolis, “said Beneš. If everything went according to plan, a 42-kilometer hot water pipeline could be built within six years. Its price was several billion crowns, the investor was CEZ. According to Mayor Vaňková, it would be possible to draw state or European subsidies up to forty percent.
CEZ Group is currently building a similar hot water pipeline from the Temelín nuclear power plant to České Budějovice. It is 26 kilometers long and costs nearly 1.7 billion crowns. “We expect the start of deliveries in 2023,” said power plant spokesman Marek Sviták. The heat from Temelín should cover a third of the needs of the South Bohemian metropolis.