Assessing the Economic Efficiency of Using Wind Turbines Jointly with Boiler Houses for Heat Supply in Remote and Isolated Regions of the Westernmost Part of Russia’s Arctic Zone

Abstract

The article addresses matters concerned with decreasing the prime cost of thermal energy in the remote and isolated regions of Russia’s Arctic zone (AZ) that have a high wind energy potential by using wind turbines (WTs) jointly with boiler houses operating on expensive imported fossil fuel for heat-supply purposes. The use of wind turbines will make it possible to decrease the participation of boiler houses in the supply of heat to consumers, save fossil fuel, and, thereby, help decrease the prime cost of thermal energy. A procedure for calculating the levelized cost of thermal energy is developed and described in detail. The procedure is adapted to analyzing the efficiency of alternative options of using WTs jointly with boiler houses for heat-supply purposes, among which the alternative ensuring the minimal levelized cost of thermal energy is regarded as the most efficient one. By using the obtained technique, the economic efficiency of applying WTs jointly with boiler houses in the heat-supply systems of remote and isolated regions is evaluated taking the westernmost part of Russia’s Arctic zone as an example. It has been determined that, in such regions, in which the final annual average cost of fossil fuel is more than 1.5 times higher than the fuel cost in the cities and industrial centers of the AZ westernmost part as a consequence of a high transport component, the WTs are most efficient when used jointly with boiler houses operating on diesel fuel. For boiler houses operating on fuel oil and coal, the effect from using WTs is not so high. It is also shown that the cheaper the fuel, the less efficient or even inefficient at all the use of WTs becomes in comparison with the heat-supply option from a boiler house without connecting a WT. For the regions considered, the joint production of thermal energy by WTs and boiler houses operating on diesel fuel, fuel oil, and coal makes it possible to decrease its levelized cost by 7‒55, 5‒20, and 2‒7%, respectively.