Facts about city scale district heating
London
London has a history of using district heating, with Battersea Power Station being connected to 6,000 flats in Pimlico during 1953. Since this time other systems (such as Citigen and Barkentine) have emerged in the capital and are being used today. There is also a system being added in the Olympic Park.
The London Thames Gateway Heat Network will have the potential to connect up to 120,000 homes and properties through 67km of network, which would save almost 100,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year. The first customers could be supplied by 2011.
London Potential
The LDA is providing a series of support packages to boroughs to carry out energy masterplanning across London. This will build on the London Heat Map which provides a resource of heat demand and supply that can be assessed to identify opportunities for decentralised energy projects.
Additional funding from London Councils and Capital Ambition will facilitate detailed heat maps of all boroughs to be completed. The energy masterplanning programme will then provide the support and guidance to define these opportunities and develop them into market opportunities for decentralised energy projects.
Helsinki
Helsinki Energy is a municipality owned utility founded in 1909. District Heating operation was started in the 1950’s and District Cooling in 1990’s. Today they are considered as world leaders in co-generation and energy efficiency. Already in 1990 Helsinki Energy was awarded the United Nations Environmental Award for the efficient energy production and in 2008 European Parliament awarded Helsinki Energy with the European Regional Champion Award for eco-efficient cogeneration.
Helsinki Energy generate and distribute electricity, heat and cooling. They also provide technical service for energy systems and take care of the outdoor lighting in Helsinki. The total asset value is about £1500m and annual profit £100-200m.xc
Helsinki Energy sell over 6,000 GWh/a of heat to some 13,000 customer facilities, the bulk of which are residential buildings. District heating covers approx. 93% of Helsinki’s heating energy requirement. The benefits of district heating include ease of maintenance, affordability and environmental friendliness. Heating produced through cogeneration achieves fuel savings and the concentration of heat generation in power plants has also contributed to a substantial improvement in urban air quality.
The total length of the district heating network is 1,180 kilometers and in average 27 km of new network is built annually. Heat is supplied by a variety of sources, including natural gas CHP and heat pumps, all adding to the security of supply. The operational reliability of Helsinki’s district heating network is excellent; partly because of efficient preventive maintenance but also because it has been built in such a way that heat can be delivered to the customer using several separate routes.
Helsinki’s heat complies with the Fair District Heating quality mark, awarded to customer-oriented heat providers. The quality mark helps ensure reliability and transparency to a total of 2.2million consumers through the 7,500km of heat network in Finland.
In Helsinki and wider Finland all customer connections to the DH system are voluntary and based on market competition rather than a planning requirement.
Related links
Copenhagen
CTR and VEKS operate the Copenhagen district heating system which took its first steps in 1903. Today the system supplies 97% of the City through 1,300km of network.
In 2007, over 80% of the heat supplied was captured from Combined Heat and Power plants. This system reduces household bills and saves Copenhagen over six hundred thousand tonnes of CO2 emissions every year. In 1979, a Heat Act was introduced in Denmark that guarantees diversity, reliability and efficiency.