Futility of using trigeneration plants at Russia’s distributed and small-scale power facilities

Abstract

The Russian Federation Ministry of Education and Science provided financial support to various technical universities within the framework of the Federal Targeted Program "Research and Development in Priority Areas of Development of the Scientific and Technical Complex of Russia for 2014-2020". At the same time, the Ministry expected "...identifying the areas and developing engineering solutions aimed at improving the thermodynamic and technical-economic efficiency of distributed and small-scale power facilities".Yet are these expectations always met?Employees of National Research University MPEI – Academician A. V. Klimenko (research supervisor) and D.Eng., Professor V. S. Agababov (lead researcher), under an agreement with the Ministry of Education and Science No. 14.574.21.0017, carried out research on the subject "Identification of promising areas and the development of engineering solutions aimed at improving the thermodynamic and technical-economic efficiency of distributed and small-scale power generation through the use of trigeneration technology".The report on the subject was submitted by the researchers to the Ministry of Education and Science in 2016.However, over the past five years, the researchers have not published a single article based on the results of their research. Repeated appeals of the author of this article to the researchers, the administration of NRU MPEI, the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Education and Science with a request to make the key provisions of the Report public to the scientific community were left without response. Moreover, an article was published in the Argumenty Nedeli newspaper, No. 40 (734) of 14.10.2020, on the issue ("Who will be responsible for science in MPEI?"), in which the newspaper's editorial office appealed to the Ministry of Education and Science with a request to provide for consideration by the scientific community the text of agreement No. 14.574.21.0017 between the Ministry of Education and Science and NRU MPEI, the text of the Report on the Agreement and the text of the commission's act on the implementation of the agreement. The newspaper's editorial office has not received a response to this publication from either the NRU MPEI or the Ministry of Education and Science.It only became possible to get familiarized with the text of the Report and the results of the research carried out after the researchers filed a statement of claim against the editorial board of the Nadezhnost’ i bezopasnost’ energetiki (Safety & Reliability of Power Industry) journal to the Chertanovo District Court of Moscow for the protection of honor, dignity and business reputation, for compensation for moral damage, and after a court request for reporting materials on the subject of research.Further, analysis is presented of the main provisions of the Report on the agreement with the Ministry of Education and Science.