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“Best Practice Case Study:
Installation for the valorization of the geothermal resources
from Calimanesti town
Valcea County, South-West Oltenia Region, Romania”
.
www.rets-project.eu
www.rets-community.eu
January 2010 – December 2012
“Studiu de caz exemplu de buna practica: Instalatie de
valorificare a resurselor geotermale in orasul Calimanesti
Judetul Valcea, Regiunea Sud-Vest Oltenia, Romania”
“Best Practice Case Study: Installation for the valorization of
the geothermal resources from Calimanesti town
Valcea County, South-West Oltenia Region, Romania”
Keywords: RES valorisation, geothermal energy, local
authorities, space heating, hot water for domestic use
1. EU Policy
For several decades valorization of renewable energy sources has represented an important
component of the EU energy policy. Nevertheless, the importance of this issue has greatly
increased lately due to the problems caused by the dependence on imports and climate
changes.
In 2001 the Directive 2001/77/CE on the promotion of electricity from RES on the unique
electricity market was promoted. The Directive aimed at:
• Doubling the contribution of RES to the total primary energy consumption by 2010
(from 6% to 12 %);
• Increasing the contribution of renewable energy sources from 14 % to 22 % to the
electricity consumption in the same period;
• Reduction in the GHG emissions by 8 % in 2012 as compared to 1990 (Kyoto
Protocol).
The Green Paper: “A European strategy for sustainable, competitive and secure energy”
states that the renewable energy sources represent “a political priority at the EU level” and
sets measures for their valorization.
On January 10, 2007 the European Commission proposed a coherent package of measures
for defining a new European energy policy able to mitigate the climate changes and increase
energy security and competitiveness within the European Union. The proposed package was
adopted by the European Council in April 2007. The Council established the following
objectives for 2020:
- Reduction by 20% in primary energy consumption;
- Reduction by 20 % in GHG emissions;
- Covering 20 % of the total energy consumption from renewable energy sources by
2020;
- Covering 10 % of the total fuel consumption for transport from RES.
On the occasion of the package launching on January 10, 2007, the President of the
European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, said:” Today marks a step change for the
European Union. The energy policy was a core area at the start of the European project. We
must now return it to the centre stage.”
Several directives approved immediately after aimed at creating the legislative framework
with a view to attaining the established targets. Among them, one of the most important
was the Directive 2009/28/EC on the valorization of renewable energy sources.
The Directive established mandatory targets for all the Member States by 2020, as well as
orientations for the 2010-2020 period of time. The Directive also established that each
country has to develop a national action plan for the valorization of RES to include measures
for attaining the set target.
The Directive 31/2010 stipulated that the primary energy generated from RES by location for
each building should be greater than the consumption of final energy used by the building
(fossil fuels, electricity, urban district heating, etc.) starting from 01.01.2019 (for all the new
public buildings), and 31.12.2020, respectively, for all the buildings regardless of their
destination.
Thus, all the new buildings should become energy producers.
2. National Policy
In Romania the valorization of RES has become an important component of the energy policy
at the national level at the beginning of this decade on the background of surpassing the
transition period and getting closer to the EU. The signing of the EU Accession Treaty (in
April 2005) and gaining the EU Member State statute (on January 1, 2007) represent
significant moments in Romania’s contemporary history. The adoption of the Community
aquis in the energy field has greatly influenced RES valorization.
An important role was played by the Strategy for the renewable energy sources valorization
approved through GD 1535/2003.
The general objectives of the Strategy for the renewable energy sources valorization
consisted of:
- Integration of the renewable energy sources into the structure of the national
power system;
- Diminishing the technical and functional and psycho- social barriers to the
valorization process of the renewable energy sources, simultaneously with the
identification of the cost elements and economic efficiency;
- Promotion of private investments and creation of the necessary conditions for
facilitating the access of the foreign capital on the market of renewable energy
sources;
- Supply of isolated communities with energy based on the valorization of the local
renewable energy sources, there, where possible;
- Creating the conditions for Romania’s participation in the European “Green
Certificate” market (GC) for energy from renewable energy sources.
In the period of time that followed several legislative acts and norms on the promotion of
electricity from RES were developed.
For promoting production of electricity a compulsory quota system in combination with the
green certificate trading was introduced as a support mechanism in 2004.
A similar system for the promotion of heat from renewable energy sources through financial
support in the operation phase has not been introduced yet. The finacial support is ensured
in the investment phase. This support can be provided from:
- the state budget;
- within certain international agreements.
Before the accession to the EU, Romania benefitted from several non-reimbursable credits
through bilateral agreements signed with developed countries, usually within the
mechanisms for the Kyoto Protocol application (joint implementation). After Romania’s
accession to the EU the country received financial support from the Sectoral Operational
Programmes.
3. Local Authority Context
From the administrative point of view Romania has 42 counties to which the Bucharest
Municipality is added. Each county is managed by a County Council, the councilors being
elected through direct vote once every 4 years. The President of the County Council is
elected separately also by direct vote once every 4 years. Each county is divided into several
communes (in the rural areas) or towns/municipalities (in the urban areas). Each commune /
town is managed by a communal /municipal council. The Members of the Communal
/Municipal County are elected through direct vote once every 4 years. The head of the
executive at the commune/town/municipal level is the mayor who is also elected through
direct vote by the population.
In the context of Romania’s accession to the EU 8 regional development regions have been
established at the national level.
In each region a Regional Development Council (CDR), a deliberation body, without juridical
status, based on partnership principles, has been established for coordinating the activities.
In each development region there is an Agency for Regional Development (ADR), a nongovernmental, non-profit, public utility body with juridical status. Its organizational and
functional status is approved by the CDR. In practice ADR is the executive body of CDR.
The main objectives of CDR and ADR, respectively, concern the management of the
development funds allotted by the EU to the respective region, strategic planning of the
economic and social development of the region in partnership with the local actors,
promotion of cooperation and transfer of information and competences between the
business, scientific and technological environment and the development of projects with a
major impact on the region’s development.
The beneficiaries of the regional programmes and projects are public and private institutions
(local councils and county councils, companies, NGOs, education institutions and
professional associations, etc).
ADR plays a very important role in the management of the structural and cohesion funds
that Romania has received from the EU acting as an Intermediate Body for the Regional
Operational Programmes 2007-2013 (POR) for the respective regions.
RES valorization is an important component of the regional strategies and the respective
projects are significant in number and value. These projects have an important nonreimbursable financing component from the EU structural and cohesion funds or from the
state budget funds. Nevertheless, they also have a co-financing component from the
beneficiary/customer. The latter component has a small share if the beneficiaries are local
authorities, but they can be significant in absolute value if the project has a great value on its
whole. According to the legislation in force in Romania the local budget is partially supplied
from the local taxes paid by the population of the respective commune /municipality,
respectively, and partially from the amounts transferred from the state budget. Therefore,
the investment capacity of the local authority essentially depends on the amounts received
from the state budget.
Calimanesti is a town from Valcea County which, in its turn, is part of the South-West Oltenia
development region. Together with its component, Caciulata, Calimanesti forms the balneo climatic resort Calimanesti – Caciulata.
The first document mentioning the Calimanesti settlement dates back to May 20, 1388. The
first balneary facilities were built in 1910.
In 1927 the locality became a town. On the first of March, 2002 (the date of the latest
census) the population of Calimanesti numbered 8564 inhabitants. About 20 % of the
inhabitants live in blocks of flats connected to a district heating system. According to the
official data from October 2009, 529 apartments inhabited by 1851 people were connected
to the district heating system. The working population represents 25 % of the locality
population. 30% of the working population is employed in tourism.
4. Renewable Energy Systems Initiative
The geothermal waters in the Calimanesti area have been utilized since ancient times for
therapeutic purposes. But it was only in the second half of the last century that their energy
potential started to be valorized.
The FORADEX company have drilled three wells at about 3000 m. The three drillings showed
the existence of low temperature thermal water (about 92 -95 O C). The available flow of the
three drillings amounts to 50.4 l/s. This is equivalent to an energy potential of 13.2 MW in
the conditions of exploitation of thermal water the temperature of which does not surpass
30 o C.
According to Romania’s Constitution, the deposits of natural resources (geothermal waters
included) are public property and can be exploited on the basis of concession issued by the
National Agency of Mineral Resources. The FORADEX Company has obtained this concession
and is exploiting the three sources.
The extracted geothermal water is sold to the trade company CET Govora (cogeneration
plant) that supplies heat and hot water to the consumers in the area. Mention should be
made that CET Govora is a company entirely owned by the Valcea County Council.
The first two sources in chronological order ensure the heat supply for:
- Space heating;
- Hot water for domestic use;
- Swimming pool heating
of two of the hotel groups located in the northern part of Calimanesti. The water extracted
by FORADEX is taken over by CET Govora through two heating substations. In the first stage
the geothermal water at 92-95o C enters a plate heat exchanger that supplies heat for space
heating.
When it exits this first heat exchanger the temperature of water reaches about 50o C. Then it
enters the second heat exchanger for the preparation of the hot water for domestic use.
When it exits the second heat exchanger the water temperature is about 30-40o C and then
it is directly used in the pools of the hotels to be afterwards discharged into the river Olt.
The third geothermal drill with a flow of 18 l/s extracts geothermal water at 92-95o C and is
also exploited by FORADEX. In a first stage it supplies heat to the Central Hotel and the
treatment base.
Calimanesti, Central Hotel
The maximum flow of the water used for this purpose was 8 l/s against the 18 l/s potential.
Therefore there still remained an unused potential of 10 l/s. In order to valorize the
remaining potential, the geothermal water is used for supplying heat to:
- The City Council of the Calimanesti town and of some institutions in the central
part;
- The blocks of flats in the central part of the town.
Blocks of flats in the central part of the Calimanesti town.
Utilization of the geothermal water made it possible to completely eliminate utilization of
the liquid fuel for the hot water preparation and reduce the necessary liquid fuel used for
the town heating by about one third.
In order to cover peak consumption (in the cold period of the year) the hot water boilers
running on liquid fuel have been preserved.
The value of the investment amounted to USD 1.5 million and was financed by the Austrian
Government.
City Council of the Calimanesti town
5. Lessons learned: Helpful information for other authorities
The project described represents a permanent preoccupation at the level of the Calimanesti
City Council. The preoccupations date back to the period of centralized economy and have
continued up to the present moment. They have been supported at the central level. Thus,
the potential of the geothermal resources in the area and the technological problems
relating to the valorization of the geothermal sources have been investigated by different
specialized organizations from Romania within projects financed through the national
research and development programmes.
The financing of the renewable energy sources valorization by means of non-reimbursable
external credits made the object of several inter-governmental agreements signed in the
course of time between the Romanian Government and the governments of other states
(usually within the mechanisms for the application of the Kyoto Protocol)
The Calimanesti project, in particular, has been carried out by means of a non-reimbursable
credit from the Government of Austria. For the development of this project the Government
approved the exemption from customs taxes of the equipment imported for this installation
(at the time when the project was developed Romania was not EU Member). After
Romania’s accession to the EU such projects have been financed through the EU Sectoral
Operational Programme for Increasing Economic Competitiveness - Axis 4.
The activities carried out by the city council for the valorization of the geothermal energy will
continue. In the first place a higher valorization of the potential of the geothermal energy
resource is envisaged.
The hot water used for heating the central part of Calimanesti is discharged into the Olt at a
temperature of about 500 C. This has a negative impact on the ecosystem in the discharge
zone and leaves an energy potential that can be further exploited.
In order to fully exploit the thermal potential and eliminate the ecological impact it is
envisaged to utilize a water/water heat pump with mechanical compression. Such an
installation would lower the discharge temperature to about 30 0 C. Thus the resulting heat
could be utilized.
6. Sources of information
Contact information for the compiler of this report.
Maria Rugina
Institutul de Cercetari si Modernizari Energetice-ICEMENERG
Postal Address: Bd. Energeticienilor nr.8, 032092, Bucuresti, sect. 3, Romania
Phone: +40 213 464 745
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.icemenerg.ro