The mayor of Bacău, Lucian Stanciu Viziteu, announced that Thermoenergy Group will install a new cogeneration turbine in less than two weeks, as a result of an investment of 16.5 million lei. The financing was provided by government funds in a proportion of 90%, states Transilvania Business.

“The new 16.5 million lei cogeneration turbine just arrived in Bacău, directly from San Diego California, USA,” the mayor announced. “It will start operating in 8-10 days. The turbine burns gas and produces heat, hot water, but also electricity”, he said.

“The turbine will supply heat to 15,000 apartments, the entire network of schools, the Municipal Hospital, but also to dozens of companies. It is the most efficient technology at present, and cogeneration of electricity creates an enormous competitive advantage. During this period with enormous gas prices, such an investment greatly reduces the operating costs of the central heating plant”, the mayor said, as quoted by Transilvania Business.

On 16 September, Solar Turbines EAME was declared the winner of the award procedure carried out by Thermoenergy Group through the SEAP platform. Through this investment, the municipality of Bacău, which is the owner of SACET Bacău, will modernize the cogeneration group of 14 MWe, as approved by the Bacău Local Council in March 2021.

The opportunity and necessity of the acquisition resulted from the documentation made by the Bucharest- based company Nebo Instaconstruct and approved in December 2020. The intervention is justified by the fact that in June 2020, when checking the technical condition of the turbine, defects were found in the combustion chamber, “with a high potential for risk of total destruction” of the turbine. It was thus decided to start the third cycle of operation of the cogeneration group, with the same turbine model used previously (2008-2014, 2014-2020) – Titan 130S, produced by Solar Turbines USA.

The calculations made by Nebo Instaconstruct show that at the prices before the recent price increases, the recovery of the investment would be made in 6 months, including the cold season.