Green Industry MBA Study Tour 2011 (4 April 2011)

In the scope of the Green Industry MBA studies for students from India, Sri Lanka, Albania and Brazil, ICPE on 4 and 5 April 2011 organized the First Study Tour in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

The first stop was Turboinstitute, an independent hydro institute, which offers complete services for small and mini hydro. It also provides full pre-tender support for large hydro projects, assisting hydroelectric power plant owners to assure successful outcomes, as well as to gain efficiency and increased value. Dr. Vladimir Kecan, Managing Director gave us a thorough power-point presentation, introducing their “hydro way of life”, which is to him and his employees a philosophy, not only work. We saw their most efficient machines. After this presentation, he gave us a tour through their laboratory, where we saw their 4 main turbines, how their research goes on and it was, in sum, very illuminative and educative.

The second stop was at TE-TOL, Toplarna Ljubljana, the biggest, highly-efficient cogeneration facility in Slovenia, producing electricity and heat in cogeneration. They are providing more than 90 percent of demand for heat in the district heating system of the city of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, which represents about 50 percent of total heat demand in district heating systems of Slovenia. All electric energy is produced in cogeneration and represents about 3 percent of Slovenian electricity demand. Modes of operation of production capacities in TE-TOL are above all adjusting to the production of heat for the demand of district heating system of Ljubljana city. Ms. Irena Debeljak and her colleague also gave us a short power point presentation about the basic things concerning their work, graphic chards of emissions and their recent reductions. Later they gave us a tour around this huge complex, which we found very interesting.

The last stop of our journey was VO-KA, Central Wastewater Treatment Plant Ljubljana (Water and sewage system), which is one of the public companies, included in the Javni Holding Ljubljana (Public holding Ljubljana). The basic mission of the company is to supply healthy drinking water to people and systemically drain and treat waste water from the sewage system. These activities are performed in the area of the Municipality of Ljubljana and partly in the areas of the suburban municipalities. Their representative gave us a very detailed outdoor tour with great explanations about the process of cleaning water around their complex. Some of the station were a bit smelly, but most instructive. We had a chance to see the whole process of cleansing the water and it truly was interesting.