Gazprom, Mitsubishi See Life in Coal Yet

Gazprom said its OGK-2 subsidiary in Russia started up two brand new coal-fired power plants with a combined capacity of 1 GW in late June 2016.

The units are at Troitsk, near Chelyabinsk in the Urals, and at Novocherkassk, near Rostov in southern Russia. In a May 17 briefing on its power business in 2016, Gazprom also said that its TGC-1 subsidiary has completed a 100-MW gas-fired combined heat and power plant in St Petersburg.

Gazprom said its power generation capacity now exceeds 8.5 GW. Its core generation companies (Mosenergo, MOEK, TGC-1 and OGK-2) increased power and heat production by over 6% last year to 153.8bn kWh and 119.3mn giga-calories respectively, and their net profits grew by 65.5% to rubles 19.3bn ($340mn). Gazprom began investing in power generation a decade ago in 2007, although attempts to build power assets abroad .

Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems opens a new office in Warsaw (Photo credit: the company)

The Russian giant is not alone in spurring new coal-fired generation. Japan’s Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS), one of the world’s leading turbinemakers, said May 18 it is opening a new office in Warsaw to support and increase orders for its advanced coal-fired power generation systems.

The Japanese company is already building a new 1,075 MW bituminous coal-fired plant for Polish utility Enea at Kozienice, due to start operations in December 2017, and delivered a flue gas denitration unit there in 2016. It said that Poland generates roughly 90% of its power from coal and is seeking to revitalise its coal industry while improving air quality technology, an activity in which the Japanese firm said it also could help.

A recent report said many Polish coal-fired plants face tough air quality compliance choices over the next four years. In contrast, the UK used no coal at all in power generation during a 24-hour period on April 21 2017 -- the first time in probably a century or more this had happened on a weekday. Also a study by the International Gas Union last year argued strongly that switching from coal to gas in power generation could save premature deaths from poor air quality, citing the southern Polish city of Krakow as one place where improvements had been made.  

Dutch CO₂ emissions up

Netherlands CO₂ emissions increased by 1.9% year on year in 1Q2017, said the country's statistics agency CBS May 16. Emissions by energy and waste management companies rose by 4%, largely due to a year-on-year increase in electricity production, with incremental output mainly going for export. Energy companies used more natural gas as well as more coal, said CBS. France was heavily reliant on power imports early in 1Q2017.

The Dutch economy recorded 3.4% growth year on year in 1Q2017.

Mark Smedley