Participants have first visited a combined heat and power plant in Hvide Sande called „Hvide Sande Fjernvarme A.m.b.A“, a unique CHP plant in Denmark, which due to its excellent management of heat and electricity, can offer its customers the cheapest heat in Denmark. Interestingly, participants of the study visit learned here about the unique Danish business model, where each customer of a heat and power plant is also its owner. A community or cooperative in an area may establish a heating company that builds, manages and expands the local heating system, but cannot make money on the sale of heat. Thanks to this model, residents have a real influence on their heat source, while benefiting from the economies of scale and the possibility of trading electricity on the energy market. The participants of the study visit were surprised by the very small number of staff to manage such a large and important undertaking.

On the HR side, there are 3 operational employees, 1 part-time office employee and 1 part-time service employee. Hvide Sande Fjernvarme A.m.b.A. has been operating since 1963 and has dealt with various types of fuels over the years. In 1994, natural gas cogeneration sources were launched in the heat and power plant. Next, an electric boiler with a capacity of 6 MW was installed in 2011, which draws electricity from the power grid when prices are favorable, and three years later, 9,576 m² of solar collectors were installed, generating over 10% annual heat production. The heat and power plant also owns three wind turbines with a capacity of 3 MW each, located on a nearby beach (Fig. 1).

In 2019, the electric boiler was moved and expanded (up to 10MW of power) and an air-ammonia heat pump with a capacity of 4.65 MW was built. In 2020, Hvide Sande Fjernvarme was able to produce 92.4% of heat from renewable green energy and also in the same year the heat and power plant received the 2020 District Heating Award – “for implementing a number of green initiatives since 2014 that will reduce CO₂ emissions by 97%”.

The next point on the program was visit at the heat and power plant in Ringkøbing – Ringkøbing Fjernvarme. It is a much larger plant, when compared to the previous visit, supplying heat to 4,700 facilities. Established in 1963, has used fuel oil, coal and natural gas in its history. Currently, the heating plant is striving to completely switch to renewable fuels. It managed to resign from coal already in 1993  and in 2010 a solar farm was launched with a capacity of 11 MW of heat under optimal weather conditions – it is the source of 6% of the total heat demand in Ringkøbing. In 2010, an electric boiler with a capacity of 12 MW was also launched, which converts this energy into cheap heat during periods of overproduction from wind turbines. In 2014, a second collector farm was added and currently solar collectors cover 12% of the heat demand. In 2016, a heat pump with a capacity of 4.3 MW was added, powered by electricity and natural gas, which was rebuilt in 2021 and currently no longer uses natural gas and its heating effect is approximately 3.4 MW. The heat and power plant has very ambitious development plans to soon start building a biomass boiler for wood waste generated locally from the wood industry. The heat and power plant hopes to achieve a situation where natural gas will be used only in exceptional circumstances and heat and electricity will come entirely from renewable energy.

On the second day, the participants of the study visit went to Aalborg – a city in the north of the country, where EMD International is located – a company specializing in creating software for managing thermal power plants and creating digital twins of these facilities that support investment planning. Participants learned a lot about Danish’s energy markets and the legal situation that has helped develop district heating networks on such a large scale.

IMP PAN would like to especially thank EMD International for help and support in organization of this event.

Photos: Weronika Radziszewska, IMP PAN