Public transport and utilities equipment in Tatarstan may in the future be en masse transferred to gas fuel. Besides, small gas engine thermal power plants are likely to be used in the republic. Prospects for the innovations were today discussed in Naberezhnye Chelny during a Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov’s visit of Raritek and the Essen supermarket.

The RMZ Raritek service firm is a service centre for gas engine equipment maintenance. The Raritek gas service centre performs serial installation of gas cylinder equipment on trucks and buses with Kamaz gas engines. The guests examined Kamaz trucks and buses converted to operate with gas fuel. Rustam Minnikhanov remarked on a great economic benefit and environmental efficiency of switching from diesel fuel to gas. According to the gas cylinder equipment, operating a bus powered by gas will in 10 years total 4.2 million roubles, the cost of conversion pays off multiply.

The republic’s President suggested converting some of the public transport in Naberezhnye Chelny and Kazan to gas, as a pilot project for Russia.

Raritek showed to the guests a sample mini thermal power station with a capacity of 100 kW. A Kamaz engine operating on gas produced electricity at the cost of 1.85 roubles/kW*h, the unit costs 842 thousand roubles.

A similar plant was demonstrated to the guests at the Essen supermarket. According to the Optovik head Vadim Makheev, two gas cylinder Caterpillar engines rotate generators of a 2MW capacity, fully supplying the big supermarket with electricity. Besides, the heat produced by the engine is used to operate the heating systems – co-generation allows considerably increase the unit’s effectiveness. The plant costs 44 million roubles and is expected, said V. Makheev, to pay off in three and a half years due to a substantial economy as compared with buying electricity and heat from outside.

Rustam Minnikhanov remarked on gas cylinder engines’s considerable flexibility versus gas turbines – cylinders’s performance is solid with various load, not only at a peak power. The unit is presently operating at about half of its maximum power, and when the new home appliance store opens, the power demand will grow to about 1.6 MW.

Tatarstan President said building such mini thermal power stations was promising and demanded devising scenarios of their use in the republic.