European Cooperation Day in Petrozavodsk

European Cooperation Day was celebrated in Petrozavodsk on the 27^th of September.

The event was held in the hall of The State National Theatre of the Republic of Karelia.

More than 20 projects of Karelia ENPI CBC Programme took part in this event. 

Dmitri Bazegski, Head of the Branch Office of Karelia ENPI CBC Programme in Petrozavodsk welcomed the participants of European Cooperation Day.

                                                                             Over 70 visitors participated in the opening ceremony of the event.

A lottery was organized by the project White road.  The prize was a trip to Finland.

Museum for families project presented an interactive activity – creating angels.

Dancing Whirlpool project presented dance performances

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 Mining road project gifted stone souvenirs.

Music: education for inspiration -project  presented accordion performance and a quiz about music.

Social Navigator project demonstrated new possibilities in measuring the cardiogram.

We are thankful to all who participated the European Cooperation Day in Petrozavodsk.

Tatiana Minina

Petrozavodsk Branch Office

KA378 DHTrain – Development of an efficient support network and operation model for the municipal energy sector

DHTrain is a development and education project, which focuses on improving energy efficiency and increasing the use of local bioenergy resources in Karelia. Our main objective is to increase know-how and to launch a bioenergy training center.

Among the main pledges to come to life during our project are a new bioenergy study programme and a virtual learning environment. The Pryazha’s district heating plant and the network will be part of our virtual learning environment, which is created on the Planora Inc.’s Iisi-Netti system. All in all, one pre-training and four actual trainings will be held in Oulu and Petrozavodsk to pilot the study programme and the developed system.

The first DHTrain project trip took place in Petrozavodsk on 12–14 March, 2013. We met our Russian partner, OAO Petrozavodsk Communal Systems, and held a successful project meeting with all the project partners. The main objectives of our trip were to deepen the partnership, discuss about the realization of the project and visit the Pryazha’s district heating plant.

Below you will find some photos from our first project trip:

Meeting at the Petrozavodsk Communal System in Petrozavodsk.

Visit at the Pryazha’s district heating plant

(Julia Knjazeva, Planora Inc., Esa Teppo, Planora Inc., Katja Tuukkanen, Oamk and Maxim Danilin, Planora rus).

For the last six months all the project partners have focused on the project work. Planora Inc. has developed their Iisi-Netti system to meet the Russian requirements. Petrozavodsk Communal Systems has searched for plant and network information. At Oulu University of Applied Sciences we have developed parts of the bioenergy study programme, and teachers have started to plan material for the trainings. The research on the possibility to use Geographic Information Systems in Russia to survey the local bioenergy resources has also started. The result of this will be published later on our web site (www.oamk.fi/hankkeet/dhtrain).

During August we have established a DHTrain project office in Pryazha. Pre-training for the four office employees will be held in the beginning of October in Oulu. The main objective of the pre-training is to train the project office employees to use the Iisi-Netti system and the latest design software. The first bioenergy pilot training will be held in Oulu on 9–13 December, 2013. Ten Karelia’s energy company representatives are expected in Oulu to learn more about energy consumption, energy efficiency, energy technology, bioenergy and hear about the latest innovations.

Katja Tuukkanen

Project Manager

Oulu University of Applied Sciences

School of Engineering

European Cooperation Day experiences

Life Long Wellbeing project took part in the European Cooperation Day by organizing a health day event together with the local Stroke Association in Kainuu Region Library on Friday 27.9.20013. In the event it was possible to measure blood sugar, hemoglobin, blood pressure and body fat index. Peak expiratory flow test (PEF) was also a new experience for many participants.  

 

The event was attended by over 200 people of different ages. A large number of visitors and their desire to get information about the current state of their own health surprised the organizers of the event. 

It was common for both men and women to have a high body fat index. Some participants’ body fat index was measured for the first time and for many the results were surprising. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time for personal health counseling. However, participants were given materials on healthy lifestyle and musculoskeletal disorders. The Stroke Association guided the participants to recognize the symptoms of a stroke and what to do if symptoms appear.

During the event the organizers would have wanted to tell more about the Lifelong Wellbeing-project as well as health inequalities in Russian Karelia. Also, some of the participants were very interested in Russian women's and men's health, and how they differ from the Finnish health status. 

The day was a good experience for the organizers even there wasn’t enough time for personal advice and discussion. It was a positive surprise how many people attended the event. The organizers believe that the measurements made the people think about their own health and well-being.  

Kaisa Mikkonen

Senior Lecturer

EU-funding pilot project – chances and challenges for new business

Karelia ENPI CBC Program offers excellent situation for concrete investment projects in program area. Looking to the program by Finnish side, it also offers good chance to companies to start business in Russia. It is a safety way because projects are managed by lead partner and money is protected by program. Companies can be partners with self-funding part and rest of money comes from EU. In my point of view companies should look at this like new the export opportunities for their business. Like in BIOKOS-project, the lead partner is Regional Council of Kainuu, which means in practice that administrative organization have several contacts to authorities in Russian side. For companies it is very useful to create their own contacts with them. In long term the contacts and the experience that has been got from project can help a lot in export or business in common. 

In BIOKOS project is target to build 1 MW combined heat and power plant (CHP) in connection with waste water treatment plant in Kostomuksha. It is a pilot project because nowhere else exists this kind of technology or exactly saying these kinds of equipment. Technology is based on thermal drying and thermal gasification which both are innovations of private Finnish persons. One partner is responsible to plan the entity. In case the project succeeds this can be start for new business and co-operation. But the best issue is that sewage sludge will be handled and modified to energy in Kostomuksha. It is nice to notice that City of Kostomuksha is very open for new innovations and new possibilities. Kostomuksha is pioneer and one good reference can open new cities to partners. 

By this Karelia ENPI CBC Program partners will get more knowledge than one reference. Export/Import from Finland to Russia is not so simply. Or it is, but it is important to know what must be done before the equipment transport to Russian side. Through this project partners will get simply model for export: knowledge about Technical Requirements of Custom Union, model for custom number that all equipment can be exported in one entity and a lot of technical papers will be translated to Russia. This is the case why should be more EU-funding investment and concrete projects available for small companies. And companies should take to chance. In Russia is a lot of knowledge in basic industry but also in new technics. By these EU-funding projects is possible to disseminate knowhow to each other and networking. Or even to create together something new! 

But. There are always some “buts”. In EU-funding projects budget is very limited and it means there is no more money than budgeted amount. In pilot projects can be unexpected costs in installation and in start-up. They can be even 10 % from total budget. It is really difficult to say how much should be allocate money for changes. And how much is it even possible inside the project budget? It is possible try to decrease some costs but how much can decrease for example design costs in pilot project -case? I would say that nothing. If these kinds of issues are not taken into account in project applications, it is very challenging to change budget during the project. There should always be some risk money behind the project budget or allocates some amount for unexpected costs. Pilot projects need probably more money for unexpected costs as usual. In budget can be money for purchasing needed equipment but there is no money to get process work. Or there is a risk that money finish before plant is totally running. Project can be an economic risk for all partners. Even in plants which are be built by well-known technics, there can be unexpected costs in start-up, too. For example it has been built several nuclear power plants in the world and technics are known. However Olkiluoto 3 has cost more than expected and project is late couple of years. 

EU-funding project differs from commercial project. In both cases the owner is known but in commercial projects there is some guarantee for the plant. After Sales Managers will make sure everything is working and in some cases maintenance will be easier. Or service is included into delivery. When EU-funding project ends it ends because the project can’t take tasks or costs after deadline. Despite of that it is important to make sure technical support is available for new owner if necessary. One project challenge can also be that some companies would like to keep innovations confidential until they have tested it or have ensured it works in process. 

The investment projects and the concrete building projects are always challenge for managers and partners. I’m sure all ENPI projects have challenges and own special cases. Co-operation and understanding are important for all of us. In my opinion it is important to share experiences to other projects because it can help somebody. You can follow how BIOKOS goes ahead in our web site www.biokospower.com. I wish to all other projects good luck and success!

Sanna Nikola-Määttä

KA408: The Biofuel Plant in Kostomuksha BIOKOS

Project Manager

Regional Council of Kainuu