HEATING BUDAPEST CITY In 2011 the Hungarian government made radical changes either in the former feed in tariff system or the price regulation and funding system for companies in the Hungarian district heating sector. The government’s utility overheads reduction programme, which was started in 2013, has also increased competition among the industry players. In order to overcome these challenges, and to increase the value of the district heated flats, Főtáv Zrt has been focusing on three objectives: cheaper and greener heat production; market expansion and increasing efficiency in all areas of its operations. Edina Beale reports.
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stablished in 1960 as Budapest DH Works by the previous Local Government and still 100 per cent owned by a municipality of Budapest-owned holding company, Főtáv Zrt provides district heating, domestic hot water and space heating for 238,000 households and 7000 non-residential customers throughout the whole of Budapest. The heat supply of the company’s 550km pipeline network is fed by four combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plants, five heat-only plants, one waste incineration plant, many gas engines and one gas turbine power station. According to Mr Tibor Orbán, deputy CEO of Főtáv, the company has spent the past 2-3 years working on rationalisation, replanning and renegotiating contracts, expanding the market and implementing effective cost saving measures. The company has also carried out major investments to increase the utilisation of its more efficient and cheaper heat
sources, and to improve energy efficiency. It began a flue gas heat recovery programme, and the first element of this was to implement flue gas utilising technology in the Rákoskeresztúr heat-only plant and the second in Füredi heat-only plant. Another significant project in this field was the establishment of the North-Pest– Újpalota heat cooperation system. Involving an investment of around 5 billion HUF, which will be completed at the beginning of next year, this will allow Főtáv to increase the utilisation of heat produced from burning communal waste for heat supply and reduce its heat purchasing costs significantly. A future project to build a second waste to energy plant in Budapest is currently in the first phase of development. “The realisation of the South Budapest heat cooperation system project is backed up by the Hungarian government as well as other public
utility companies as a joint effort is needed to cover the 60–70 billion HUF cost of this development,” explains Mr Orbán. Főtáv currently owns and operates 3500 consumer substations and their modernisation is a continuous process; the company renews more than 100 substations every year. In previous years, the equipment and implementation of the substations was carried out by subcontractors. In the past two years, Főtáv has developed its own technology to manufacture the module units and established a production factory which is now manufacturing products not only for the company’s own use but also for sales. In 2013 the introduction of remote control systems in 700 substations was a major step towards focusing on the consumer and saving energy and labour costs. The company aims to carry out this development for all its substations in three phases over the next 3–4 years.
