Georgii Geletukha about an alternative to gasoline and diesel generators
According to preliminary estimates, 510,000 generators have been brought to Ukraine since the beginning of 2022. The import process has become significantly easier after the approval of state tax incentives, as well as the strengthening of international aid.
The chairman of the Board of the Bioenergy Association of Ukraine, Georgii Geletukha, in a new article for the online media “Ekonomichna Pravda” provided arguments for why gasoline and diesel generators are not the optimal solutions.
Types of generators
- Mobile generators can run on gasoline, diesel, and natural gas. Gasoline generators have low efficiency (18-20%) and motor resource (up to 4 thousand hours). Their main advantage is relatively low cost. Such characteristics limit their use only in small capacities (3-10 kW).
- Diesel generators have higher efficiency (up to 40%) and motor resource (up to 40 thousand hours). Prices for diesel generators are 20-40% higher than for gasoline generators with the same capacity. This is the main type of mobile generator with a capacity of 0.1-5 MW.
- Gas generators have high efficiency (30-40%) and motor resource (up to 40 thousand hours). Their prices are comparable to the prices of diesel generators of the same capacity. In addition, gas is environmentally friendly and, in most cases, cheaper than gasoline and diesel.
However
It is very expensive and unprofitable, especially if we are talking about business.
If electricity from the network costs a business about UAH 5 per kWh, then from generators – UAH 20-25 per kWh.
Even at the commercial price of natural gas of 35-42 thousand UAH per thousand m3, the cost of energy in it (1045-1254 UAH/GJ) is in a number of cases lower than the wholesale cost of a unit of energy in diesel fuel (1 177 UAH/GJ).
It is expected that gas prices in Ukraine will be lower, accordingly, the cost of energy in gas (328-493 UAH/GJ) becomes 2.3-3.5 times lower than the wholesale cost of a unit of energy in diesel (1,177 UAH/GJ).
In many cases, heat from installed generators is not used, but is discharged into the atmosphere, which significantly reduces the efficiency of their use. These investments, according to the expert’s forecast, will never pay off for many companies.
What generators does Ukraine need?
Gas-piston power plants with a capacity of 0.5-2 MW based on centralized heat supply boiler houses. Such generators and the proposed arrangement have a number of advantages. Which ones exactly? Read the article on the publication’s website.
Source: Ekonomichna Pravda (in Ukrainian).
