OREANDA-NEWS. March 18, 2008. Rostov Electrometallurgical Plant (REMP, ESTAR Group) implemented an energy saving technology allowing a 2-fold cut of electricity costs. According to the experts, the interest of Don companies towards innovative technologies in energy saving is gradually increasing.

Rostov Electrometallurgical Plant (REMP) equipped the steelmaking furnace with units allowing a two-fold cut of electricity consumption. Besides, the enterprise economizes on electricity using alternative fuel.  - Use of natural gas, oxygen and carbon-bearing material allows working with foamy slag that, in its turn, increases the introduced electric capacity, decreases the melting time and electricity cost per unit, as Vladimir Limankin, deputy director of production and technical department of ESTAR management company, comments.

ESTAR was reluctant to name the cost of the units and referred to the fact that the equipment was purchased alongside the steelmaking furnace.

The energy saving technology will probably be implemented by Optifood company at the bird farm “Nadezhda” in Belokalitvinsky region. Anatoly Kovalchuk, general director of the non-profit partnership Centre for energy supply and innovative technologies, said that his enterprise developed a program of transferring the biological waste of the bird farm in heat and energy and had already made a commercial offer to Optifood. Cost of the project is 200 mln rubles. – Carbon financing can be involved in this project (financing the countries that exceed the standard of carbon discharge in the atmosphere, in the framework of Kyoto protocol – N) that can amount to 240 mln rubles, that means that the company will lose 200 mln for the project and can invest the other 40 mln in business development. Optifood management took interest in our offer, - noted Anatoly Kovalchuk. According to his words, today the Rostov region has accumulated 4.2 mln t of agricultural production waste and yearly another 3.8 mln t is accumulated. That amounts to 2.616 mln cubic meters of biogas that covers the needs in heat and electricity of the entire agriculture of the region. - In a year our centre has developed 16 investment programs and none of them got eventual financial supply, - complained Kovalchuk.

However, according to Sergey Shamshuri, director of VertolExpo, the interest of Rostov enterprises in energy saving technologies is growing: In the last 4 years the ElectroPromExpo exhibition, where the enterprises present similar projects, grew 3-fold and this year 80 companies participated there.