District Heat Supply

(in Russian, teplofikatsiia), centralized heat supply based on the combined production of electric power and heat at district heat and power plants.

The thermodynamic efficiency of producing electric power from a district heat and power supply cycle results from the elimination, usually, of heat loss to the environment, which is unavoidable in the production of electric power from a condensation cycle (seeCONDENSATION ELECTRIC POWER PLANT). As a result, the consumption of fuel per kilowatt-hour in generating electric power is reduced by 40–50 percent.

The USSR is a world leader in the development of district heat supply. The power of the turbines installed at district heat and power plants is approximately one-third of the total power of the steam turbines of all steam power plants in the country. In 1974, the combined production of electric power and heat in the USSR resulted in a saving of more than 30 million tons of standard fuel.