The centralized heating system in Bucharest had heat losses of around 40% in 2022, almost 3% more than in 2021, according to the energy balance approved on Tuesday by the General Council of the Municipality of Bucharest. This means that of the approximately 3.9 million gigacalories purchased by Termoenergetica in 2021, approximately 1.22 million were lost. Losses are covered by the municipality.
Termoenergetica networkPhoto: Hotnews
Maria Mitran, economic director of Termoenergetica, explained that the losses, in percentage, increased due to the fact that in the last 3 years, consumption decreased by 18% due to the increase in average temperature, thus, the heating season was shortened in 2022 by two months , respectively the months of April and October, but also due to the reduction in consumption as a result of the thermal rehabilitation of the blocks.
“In 2020, 4.5 million gigacalories entered the system, and the losses were 1.32 million gigacalories. In 2022, about 3.9 million gigacalories entered the system and the losses were 1.23 million gigacalories”, explained Maria Mitran.
- “A first conclusion of this analysis is the fact that during the period 2020-2022 the losses of thermal energy in the primary network increased from 28.91% to 31.54%, while the amount of heating agent supplied from the transport network decreased with 17.86%.
- Given the volume of energy transited, the level of losses is high and leads to negative effects from a technical and economic point of view. The main cause of thermal energy losses in the primary circuit is the age of the pipes that make up the network (65% of them are over 25 years old), the major consequence being the large number of breakdowns that occur (2,241 breakdowns repaired on the primary circuit in 2022) and damage to classic pipe insulation. (…)
- Secondary network losses increased from 11.39% to 12.73%. The main cause of thermal energy losses is the age of the pipelines (almost 50% of them are over 25 years old)”, the report states.
To reduce energy losses, it is recommended to start the rehabilitation program of the primary thermal networks and replace them with pre-insulated pipes, equipped with an automatic loss detection system.
It can be estimated that the rehabilitation of the entire transport system would be a project that would take at least 20 years and cost at least 1 billion euros. Calculations indicate that resizing and replacing approx. 80% of the total transport pipelines, having an age of more than 20 years, if we take into account the actual flows of thermal agent resulting from the reduction of the maximum hourly thermal energy requirement”, the document states.
Another 400 million euros would be needed to rehabilitate the distribution system.
In 2020, the centralized heating system in Bucharest had heat losses of 36.63%.
How many subscribers does the centralized heating system in Bucharest serve?
According to existing data, Termoenergetica supplies thermal energy for 10,032 owner/tenant associations from 8,091 housing blocks, for 74 dormitories and 313 buildings/houses, representing approximately 1,170,000 inhabitants. Of the total technical energy supplied by Termoenergetica, population consumption represents 92.21%.
The installations of the centralized heating system in Bucharest are composed of:
- 45 district power plants and one area thermal power plant;
- primary thermal networks – 423.27 km route / 851.84 km pipeline;
- technical points – PT (646 pcs.) and thermal modules – MT (308 pcs.);
- secondary thermal networks – 702.89 km route/2. 763 km of heating distribution pipes and 49.58 km of route / 198.34 km of CT-related distribution pipes;
Termoenergetica is the administrator of the largest heating system in Romania.
From the point of view of the age of the pipes of the heating network, the situation is as follows:
- of the 851.84 km of primary hot water transport network pipe, over 65% is older than 25 years, 10% is between 20 and 25 years old, 11% between 10 and 20 years and only about 14% less than 10 years.
- of the 2,763 km secondary network pipe – over 45% is older than 25 years, 14.4% between 20 and 25 years, 23% between 10 and 20 years and about 17% less than 10 years.
What network upgrade work has been done
The City Hall of the Capital started, only this summer, the rehabilitation works of those 210 km of heating network with European funds. This year, work will begin on 90 km of the network out of the 210 km, with the completion date being the end of 2024, promises the general mayor, Nicușor Dan. The City Hall of the Capital risks losing the European funding of 260 million euros, out of the 360 million, the total value of the project, if it does not finish at least one section by the end of this year.
In 2022, 26 km of primary network and about 52 km of secondary network have been replaced.
In 2021, the capital city hall managed to change only 20 kilometers of the primary heating network.
