Rya combined heat and power plant and Rosenlundsverket in Gothenburg are now being prepared to be able to run on oil for the winter, reports Gothenburg Post.
The heating plants are backup installations for district heating that normally run on natural gas, but depending on the gas situation this winter, both may need to be able to run on oil instead.
It is uncertain how they will be affected if they need to use reserve fuel for a longer period. The gas turbines in the Rya cogeneration plant are not supposed to run on oil for more than one tenth of the total operating time.
“We’ve never tested, so we don’t know,” says Daniel Eklund, operational manager for operation and safety at Göteborg energi to GP.
The EU has called on all member states to reduce gas use by 15 percent, and the price of natural gas is significantly higher than oil. Performance would, however, be reduced by 70 percent if you are forced to switch over, believes Eklund, who therefore wishes that the reserve plants can use more natural gas.
“We don’t want to take a chance on something we don’t believe in, because then we could end up in a situation where we have a breakdown when it’s the coldest this winter,” he says.