The city of Krakow is located in a valley on the Wisla (Vistula) River in south-central Poland. The regional population exceeds one million.Poland was erased from the map of Europe near the end of the 18th century, following several partitions and annexations of its territory by the empires of Russia, Austria, and Prussia. Krakow, ancient seat of the Polish kings and home of the Jagiellonian University, fell under the control of the Austrian Empire, yet maintained its cultural importance while it industrialized. Following the defeat of the Axis powers in World War I, Poland was re-established as a nation. During World War II, the city was occupied by Germany but escaped the devastation suffered by other Polish cities as the war ended. Its historic buildings, municipal utilities, and industrial facilities survived virtually unharmed. The utility systems were readily available for industrial and residential expansion, but without the need for postwar reconstruction they were also without the opportunity for replacement or modernization.
Krakow today is the third largest city in Poland and is a major industrial, educational, and cultural center for the nation. It is the site of many heavy industries such as the Lenin Steel Works and nearby Nowa Huta, the extensive salt mines of Wieliczka, meat processing plants, and the six-centuries old Jagiellonian University and many technical colleges. Its significance as a historic cultural center of eastern Europe, the extensive pollution of its air and water, and international interest in economic reform and environmental improvement combine to provide it with special opportunities to alleviate many of the pollution control problems it faces.
Krakow is served by a district heating system, which was consolidated in 1953 from a variety of heating plants and distribution systems whose development began near the turn of the century, and by several electric power plants. The primary fuel source for electricity, steam, and hot water production and industrial and residential heating, etc., is bituminous coal; natural gas is imported. Krakow produces electricity, steam, and hot water for industrial and residential use at central heating, electrical, and cogeneration plants. While it uses a central heating distribution system, approximately 200,000 housing and commercial units also maintain coal-fired furnaces.
Automobiles use leaded gasoline, and coal-fired steam engines run on local rail lines. The residential coal furnaces are substandard. Emissions from these vehicles, power plants, and furnaces create serious air pollution. In addition, prevailing southeasterly winds carry air pollutants from the East German and Czechoslovakian industrial regions and the nearby Lenin Steel Works. The Wisla is dreadfully polluted from local and upstream industrial, municipal, and agricultural sources. The ravages of acid rain threaten the historic buildings, which passed unscathed through the destruction of two world wars. Pollution levels in the region and the harm they cause have been a growing local and international concern for several years.
Both the soaring costs of energy and facility maintenance and a deep desire to protect the environment for reasons of health and historic preservation have caused the local government to plan major improvements to the district heating system. The primary goals are to improve the efficiency of the central plants, to reduce emissions, and to expand the district service network so that a major portion of the private, inefficient, and polluting coal furnaces might be replaced.
This paper examines the history and development of the Krakow district heating system and its central cogeneration plant, the fuels used locally, its operations and environmental effects, and plans and some of the financial strategies to improve those operations and lessen their environmental impact.
The information for this paper is drawn from conversations and correspondence with engineers and officials of the Krakow-area heating and electrical power system and of the local governments whom Henry Manczyk met in visits to Krakow in 1985 and, at the invitation of the president of the local government, in 1989; from recent conversations with technical advisors to international organizations that are financing activities to reduce the pollution problems in the Krakow region; and from technical literature relating to the Krakow system, as well as general works on heating and electricity production technology.