Capstone Turbine recently received an order for four C1000 Power Packages that will be installed in a combined cooling, heating, and power (CCHP) application at the New Century shopping mall in Sochi, Russia.
The 4MW Capstone trigeneration system will be installed in two phases to meet the power needs of the mall’s fourfold expansion and ultimately will replace three existing Petra gas reciprocating engines. The system will increase energy reliability, eliminate the use of oil and other lubricants, offer greater ease of control, and significantly reduce maintenance costs.
Capstone distributor BPC Engineering in Moscow placed the order and will supply the equipment and project supervision. BPC will pre-commission both phases of the New Century shopping mall installation. The mall, located on the banks of the Black Sea, is the first luxury shopping mall in Sochi.
During phase one, BPC will install the first C1000 Power Package on the roof of the existing power plant that supplies electricity to the 40,000-square-meter mall. During phase two, BPC will commission three additional Capstone C1000s to accommodate the mall’s expansion to 160,000 square meters.
The clean-and-green electricity generated by the four C1000s will fulfill 100 percent of the mall’s power requirements. The microturbines’ waste heat will be captured to produce thermal power that will heat the facility and supply hot water.
Using four heat exchangers with a combined 1.2MW power capacity and gas boilers that offer a 5MW thermal power capacity, the trigeneration system will fulfill 100 percent of the shopping mall’s thermal needs. During the summer the waste heat will be diverted to two absorption chillers to produce air conditioning.
In Russia the price of electricity is 1.5 rubles (about US$0.05 cents in the United States) per kW-hour (kWh) and utility tariffs are 4.5 rubles on average (US$0.16 cents) per kWh.
“The price of electricity produced by the Capstone microturbines will be one third the cost of grid power,” said Alexander Skorokhodov, BPC Engineering CEO. “Our customer made his decision in favor of Capstone microturbines because of the low operating costs, small footprint, absence of oil, high reliability, and ease of control and maintenance. One of the most important attributes is the size of the total system. Because the microturbines are so compact, we can install them on two floors. This saves considerable space, which is crucial in the dense center of Sochi.”
“Russia continues to be a leading market for Capstone microturbines,” said Jim Crouse, Capstone’s Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “Capstone is experiencing great success as Russia’s economy continues to grow because businesses are searching for cleaner and more reliable energy systems.”