The Vitebsk branch of Belarusian Railways will allocate over Br3.2 billion for energy saving in 2010.

May 18, Vitebsk / Sergey Kotovets - BELTA /. The Vitebsk branch of Belarusian Railways plans to allocate over Br3.2 billion for the implementation of energy-saving measures in 2010, including over Br860 million from the innovation fund of the Ministry of Transport. This was reported to a BELTA correspondent by the enterprise's resource policy and energy saving department. Over the past 4 years, the Vitebsk branch has reduced its consumption of fuel and energy resources (FER) by more than 20% to 16 thousand tons in 2009. Based on the results of last year, the energy saving indicator was overfulfilled by 1.6% and amounted to minus 12.2%. The positive trend of increasing production energy efficiency has been maintained at the enterprise based on the results of the first quarter of the current year. One of the main directions for saving FER in the Vitebsk branch of Belarusian Railways will be the development of the solar energy sector. In 2009, the enterprise implemented a pilot project for the introduction of a photovoltaic complex at the "Vitebsk" locomotive depot, which allows saving about 4.2 thousand kWh of electricity per year. This year, a similar project is planned to be implemented at the "Luchesa" station. The enterprise will continue to work on optimizing technological processes and implementing modern energy-efficient technologies. For example, the Vitebsk carriage depot will introduce a water treatment unit using reverse osmosis technology and a recovery system. In addition, a number of energy-saving measures will be aimed at increasing the use of local types of fuel and secondary energy resources. A steam generator running on waste oil instead of natural gas is planned to be installed at the fuel depot of the "Vitebsk" locomotive depot. It is planned to allocate about Br170 million for the implementation of the project. The implementation of energy-saving measures will ensure savings of FER in the amount of over 900 tons per year and fulfill the target indicator for energy saving at the level of minus 9%. The Vitebsk branch of Belarusian Railways includes 24 separate structural divisions and two subsidiaries. The operational length of the branch's railway tracks is over 827 km (mostly single-track lines), the total deployed length of tracks exceeds 1.7 thousand km. About 10,000 specialists work at the enterprise. -0-