By 2030, 33 more towns and municipalities in Bihor will have interconnected gas networks

The vice-president of the CJ Bihor, Mircea Mălan, announced that a strategy is being prepared that aims to have gas networks in Bihor in 33 more communes and cities in the county by 2030, but these should be designed from the start so that they are as more economical and as functional as possible, not as strictly local networks, but connected to each other, writes ebihoreanul.ro

Alongside him, the general director of Distrigaz Vest assured that the gas will continue to be used, many decades from now, both for heating homes and for industry, giving the example of the success of the new network in Sânnicolau Român commune.

Promoter of a program started in 2021 through which the county administration annually provides financial and technical support for the establishment of gas networks in several administrative-territorial units in Bihor, vice-president Mircea Mălan stated that the institution he represents, the only county administration in the country which offers support to communes and cities for the creation of gas networks, designed a plan through which 33 more UATs in the county will have such networks by 2030, and then the others as well.

Currently – he recalled in a press conference held on Tuesday together with the general director of Distrigaz Vest, Mircea Lazăr – projects are being executed and ongoing for the introduction of gas networks in 20 UATs, all launched from 2021, in the Zone Metropolitan Oradea (in Oșorhei, Nojorid, Paleu and Sânmartin), in the southern area of ​​the county (Rieni, Bunteși, Dragănești, Lazuri de Beiuș and Pietroasa), in the eastern and southern areas (Alesd, Astileu, Șețchea, Tileagd, Ciumeghiu and Cociuba Mare), as well as in others where the works are carried out with support from CJ Bihor (Sânnicolau Român, Ștei, Lunca, Tinca, Cefa).

The 33 new UATs, Mălan said, will be able to have gas networks until 2030, but these, he emphasized, “must be thought of as a whole, they must all be designed and built so as to close several rings” .

Concretely, this means that from now on, from the stage of drawing up the feasibility studies for the UATs that want to have gas networks, they will have to provide pipelines of sufficiently large dimensions to ensure the transport of sufficient quantities of gas not only for the titular locality of the project, but also from and to the neighboring ones, in order to connect to them, based on the criterion of proximity.

The reason, explained the vice-president CJ Bihor, is the fact that currently there are UATs that draw up their documentation for the establishment of gas networks, but which, due to the way in which projects from neighboring communes were thought out, disparately, cannot connect to these, which are the closest, but should also run their pipes from 2-3 municipalities away, on whose territories, however, there are no networks.

In this regard, Mălan gave the example of the commune of Popești, from an area where the nearest gas main is in the commune of Balc, but, because the network here has too small pipelines, Popești should bring its gas from Sâniob, commune from which it is separated by two other communes, Derna and Chișlaz. As this would entail huge costs, it would be economically feasible that, when Derna and Chișlaz do their documentation for their own networks, the pipelines should be dimensioned in such a way as to ensure the transport of gas for Popești as well.

Another example is that of the commune of Şuncuiuș, which should bring its gas from Tileagd, so the communes that separate it from it must design the networks accordingly.

Also present at the press conference, the general director of Distrigaz Vest, Mircea Lazăr, said that in order to expand the gas networks in the county, he had so far had meetings “mediated by the Bihor County Council” with the representatives of 60 communes, in which conveyed the message that future networks must be designed in such a way that the pipes are sufficiently dimensioned and the connections are made in the closest places.

“I think the mayors have understood that it is more important to invest in local networks than in connections,” said the Distrigaz Vest official, also explaining that if the networks are thought at a “regional” level, not strictly local, the investments are also lower for each UAT, and the possibility of running out of gas following breakdowns is lower, precisely because these networks would work in a ring system.

The conclusion, therefore, said the director of Distrigaz West, is that “cities and communes should connect with each other instead of connecting each one directly to Transgaz”.

Gas does not “die”

On the other hand, BIHOREAN took advantage of the presence of the Distrigaz Vest official to find out if the expected EU legislative changes to restrict the use of gas in heating homes do not restrict the attractiveness or even the usefulness of the new gas networks, and the answer was negative.

According to the general director Mircea Lazăr (photo below), the EU only intends to stop allowing the installation of individual power plants from 2030 (after this year, the exclusive use of energy from photovoltaic parks and heat pumps for heating households will be allowed), but the gas plants can be installed by then, so can the extended gas networks, especially since in the future they will use a mixture of natural gas with hydrogen, which is less polluting.

“The largest gas operator in Germany plans to invest another 3 billion euros in the next 5 years in network expansion (no – given that the networks in Germany already cover the entire territory of this country), the largest gas trader gas from Switzerland has concluded a 25-year contract for the purchase of gas from the USA”, said the Distrigaz Vest official to emphasize that the use of gas in district heating is far from over, even more so as the expansion of electricity systems to support the transition of heating to this type of energy would require huge investments, impossible to conceive in the foreseeable future.

Successful example: Sânnicolau Român

Lazăr also gave a successful example of a municipality in Bihor that recently built its own gas network with support from CJ Bihor, with funds from the local budget and, of course, from the company’s budget, showing that three years ago, when the tender for the construction of the network was still in preparation, “there was only a 30% chance that we would participate in the tender”, so that after December 2022, when the new network was put into use, it would find that it was a successful investment.

“Initially, only 50% of the existing kilometers were auctioned (no – of the current length of the network, 13 km), we estimate for the whole commune about 350 domestic consumers. In a short time, we already had over 200 connection contracts signed on 60% of the pipeline. In addition, two important economic agents came to the commune, which, if it were not for the gas, would not have come. After the first winter, we noticed that all the locals want gas”, said the director of Distrigaz West.

Article taken from ebihoreanul.ro