Study on the boundaries of economic efficiency when using mini-HPP for the development of coal deposits

The article is focused on the peculiarities of using mini-heat and power plants (MHPP) for energy management of remote coal mines. Nowadays independent sources of energy supply are of the utmost interest. This is due to a relatively bad capital investment, a low cost of generated energy, self-sufficiency regardless of public energy networks. When making design and investment decisions about energy management while developing remote coal deposits it’s necessary to consider alternative options of energy supply in power consumption facilities, evaluate the prospects of using MHPP for these purposes, identify the areas of their economic efficiency taking into account a technically and economically reasonable planning horizon. At the design stage Option 1 (Power supply using diesel power plants) was taken as the fundamental method of energy supply. Two of the most efficient and technically feasible options were accepted as alternative. Option 2 - Power supply using diesel power plants and block-modular boiler rooms. In this case diesel power plants are used to supply heat and electricity to all objects except the camp. The camp is supplied with heat energy with the help of block-modular boiler rooms. Option 3 - Power supply using a co-generation plant - mini-HPP. Power supply of the entire production complex is carried out with the help of mini-HPP, which should be located not far away from the camp, near the heat energy consumers. To provide the coal mine and industrial sites with electric power it’s needed to build transmission lines of small extent. It’s planned to provide industrial sites with thermal power by means of electric heaters. For each option capital investment required for its implementation, as well as operating costs are calculated. The criterion of minimum total energy costs of the enterprise, cumulative for the billing period, limited by technical resources of main aggregates and the period of working efficiency of a deposit is accepted as a criterion for selecting the most cost-effective option, due to a non-commercial nature of the task. In addition to the assessment of economic efficiency of alternative options of power supply, the issues on defining the boundaries of economic efficiency while using independent energy sources are considered.