Background
Greenhouse gas emissions are a serious threat to the environment: Under the Kyoto Protocol (initially signed in Japan in 1997) industrialised countries committed themselves to a reduction by 2012, of 1991 levels of four greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulphur hexafluoride) and two groups of gases (hydrofluorocarbons and perfluorocarbons) produced by them. The relatively rapid recent economic development experienced in Slovenia has been accompanied by severe pollution and widespread degradation of natural resources. In many cases, small thermal facilities are significant polluters. They account for example, for 7% of the country’s total sulphur dioxide (SO2) and around 4% of the total NOx (NO and NO2 gases). Moreover, 135 kWh of energy per square metre of flat surfaces is lost into the air due to the use of inefficient equipment in boiler rooms.
Objectives
Targeting 35 small thermal facilities, the project aimed to demonstrate ways of reducing their oil/gas consumption in order to minimise the emission of greenhouse gases. Specific goals were to:
- reduce their heating costs by reducing oil/gas consumption by up to 30%;
- prevent accidents and prolong the lifetime of boilers;
- establish real-time monitoring of thermal facility performance for the owners of the targeted pilot thermal facilities; and
- increase the number of monitored plants (up to 1 500).
Results
In 2004, a new project partner, Energetika Ljubljana, responsible for heating of Ljubljana (Slovenia), took over from Globalvision as the ‘project beneficiary’. Not all the project objectives were carried out. The following partial results were reported:
- The hardware development phase was completed. The hardware was developed from a small test plant installed at the Jozef Stefan research institute in Ljubljana and then adapted to work in a public environment for the planned 35 pilot plants. The development work mainly focused on ensuring measurement precision/ reliability and safe data communications (Ethernet connection, GPR system).
- The basic software was successfully tested; but only one remote connection was established: at Valdoltra Hospital (Istria). Real-time data showed actual thermal consumption in kWh, and provided a historical record of thermal consumption, actual thermal losses (i.e., the difference between input thermal energy supplied by light oil and output thermal energy associated with heated water in the boiler). The software is also able to calculate cumulative losses (financial) due to thermal losses, although no actual figures have been reported.
Coordinator: Global Vision D.O.O
Partners: Mednarodni Center za Trajnostni Razvoj, Slovenia
Duration: 02-DEC-2003 to 03-DEC-2005
Total budget: 607,496.00 €
EU contribution: 148,985.00 €
