Say Thanks! to David and Johan

David and Johan finished their Bachelor thesis in 2011:

The impact of applying Swedish standards on the district heating distribution system in Moldova

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to display the economic consequences of changing construction methods and material when constructing district-heating distribution networks in Moldova. This could be accomplished by switching from the currently used technology regulated by the existing norms to modern methods and solutions commonly used in Sweden.

Through assistance from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and experts from Sweden, several energy projects have been implemented around the Republic of Moldova in collaboration with the Moldovan Energy Project Implementation Unit (MEPIU).

Results show that it is possible to reduce the total construction costs for both the studied cases with up to 50 %, while at the same time reducing the energy losses in the systems with the same amount. Some of the easiest changes to implement are also the ones with the greatest potential for decreasing the total construction cost. Actions as simple as reducing the depth at which the pipe network is constructed displays significant changes in the total construction cost. The impact of these solutions would be of great benefit to the Republic of Moldova’s strained financial situation. It might allow for further renovations of the current distribution system of which large parts are of poor quality.

If the quality of the systems could be increased, the magnitude of the current issues regarding the district-heating situation in Moldova could be decreased. One of these issues is the inferior delivery reliability, which have caused many households to disconnect from the network. An increased quality of the network might result in clients reconnecting which would have a positive impact on the struggling district heating industry.

The result

After analysing the results it can also be concluded that there are many ways to lower the costs when building district heating networks in Moldova, some things are easier to implement than others but these results show that it could be well worth the effort to try.

Thanks for this report Johan and David!