UNIDO workshop “The organization of accounting system of polychlorinated biphenyls in the energy-intensive industries of Russia”
October 29, 2015
On the 28th of October 2015 within UNIDO-Russian Railways project «Environmentally sound management and final disposal of PCBs at the Russian Railroad network and other PCBs owners» the workshop “The organization of accounting system of polychlorinated biphenyls in the energy-intensive industries of Russia” took place in the Analytical Centre for the Government of the Russian Federation. The event was organized upon the initiative of UNIDO Centre for International Industrial Cooperation in the Russian Federation and the federal state unitary enterprise “The Russian Energy Agency” under the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation.
More than 80 representatives of Russian Generating companies, energy suppliers, energy providers (including “Federal Grid Company JSC, “MOESK” JSC, “Inter RAO” JSC, “Energy systems of the East” JSC, GUP RK “Krymenergo”), the owners of the power-generating equipment (“Russian Railways” JSC, “TMK” JSC, “Corporation “GazEnergoStroy” LLC, “NK Bashneft” JSC, “MosvodokanalNIIproject Institute” JCS and others), the executive authorities (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of the Russian Federation, Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation, Federal Customs Service, Federal Agency for Scientific Organizations, Federal Bio-Medical Agency), scientific and public organizations took part in this event.
Within the seminar the problems of polychlorinated biphenyls’ (PCB) inventory and their monitoring at the energy enterprises and within other industrial fields were discussed in detail. At the present time the transformer equipment and capacitors’ owners (the potential PCB sources) awareness about the sources of hazardous chemicals their identification and correspond procedures of sampling and equipment management still remains very low. Above-noted questions were elucidated in detail by UNIDO project coordinator, Mikhail Nikiforov. In this context the cornerstone is the establishment of the state norms of maximum acceptable PCBs concentrations in the transformer oil.
The considerable attention was paid to the questions of legislative regulation of PCBs management. Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Natural Resource Use prepared and coordinated with the Federal Executive Authorities the projects of regulatory acts, which determine the inventory order of electrical oil-filled equipment and PCBs-contained equipment- and materials’ management. The corresponding offers to the Project of Federal Law “On introduction of amendments to the certain legal acts in the Russian Federation” in order to provide performances of the Russian Federation’s duty, that envisioned by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), were directed to the Committee on Resources, Natural Management and Environment of State Duma.
It is worth noting that regardless of absence of full-fledged system for PCBs management in Russia, the certain companies implement the measures for the PCBs identification in electrical equipment and their decommission. They are OJSC “Russian Railways” (within the UNIDO/GEF project “Environmentally sound management and final disposal of PCBs at the Russian Railroad network and other PCBs owners”), Federal Grid Company”, SUE “Vodokanal of St. Petersburg” and others. And it is surely necessary to join together efforts in the part of organization of PCBs monitoring system and its disposal.
The stimulation of the enterprises for the realization such kinds of programmes is one of the most important factors which determines their success. The issues of financial and fiscal stimulus for business to realize environmental projects were elucidated in detail by CG “Consulting Services”. It is worth noting that today there are a lot of mechanisms mainly based on tax exemptions while implementation of the special types of energy-efficient equipment, the best available technologies and realization of environment-oriented measures.
The important component of PCBs monitoring system is availability of laboratories and analytical capacities for pollution identification. At the present time this component is weaker, only one laboratory in Russia is accredited for PCBs identification in the transformer oil in concordance with the Federal Law №412-FZ dated on 28.12.2013 “About accreditation in the National system of accreditation”. Upon that the number of organizations is able to realize PCBs analysis however they are not put on the register of RusAccreditation.Surely the capacities of one laboratory are not able to meet the requirements at the national level. Against this background, development of the laboratory centers and reference laboratories must be one of the priorities in the part of the organization of PCBs monitoring system. UNIDO project prescribes the establishment and accreditation of 3-4 laboratories for PCBs analysis in insulating liquids and environmental components. However the number of difficulties (absence of standard solutions and reagents on the Russian market, underdevelopment of procedural framework) essentially slow down this process.
Along the seminar the questions of PCBs disposal were discussed. At the present time in Russia there are some technologies, which are able to provide the effective PCBs utilization, including those of them passed the State ecological expertise. The questions of selection the technologies must be solved on the ground of detailed technical and economic study of technologies, the needs of the enterprises and required level of oils cleaning.
To the end of the seminar, the director of UNIDO Centre for International Industrial Cooperation in the Russian Federation Korotkov S.A. accented that the solution of the problem of PCBs inventory and establishment of the monitoring system is impossible without participation of the Governmental Authorities. The establishment of legislative frameworks and introduction of mandatory instrumental inventory will imply the solution of current issues, such as creation of laboratory centers network, equipped with the modern analytical equipment, training of chemist-analysts, and the involvement of the energy equipment- owners into the inventory process.