DHC News continues its European tour of heat networks and put this time salutes the Danish capital. In Copenhagen district heating supplies over 90% of the buildings! A feat made possible by strong public demand and a dense network of diverse facilities.
Copenhagen in Brief
The city of Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark. It has, according to the census of 2014, 569,557 intramural inhabitants. Its urban area – or, as the Danish terminology, the “county” – hosts about 1.95 million people.
Copenhagen has a maritime climate. He averaged 0 degrees in winter, with a record -24.2 ° C in 1942. The summer temperatures rise: 16 ° C in July and August on average – the largest ever recorded heat in 1975 , made up mercury to 33.8 ° C.
Small feature of the Danish capital: the rainfall is regular; it rains 8 to 10 days per month throughout the year. The rains, however, by volume, more important summer (68 mm in July) and winter (30 mm in February).
A connection to the required heating network
The peculiarity of the heating network in Copenhagen? It serves more than 90% of buildings in the city. An “exploit” made possible by a decree issued in 2000, which then allowed the local authorities to make mandatory connection to the district heating network for buildings, new and old. Result: CO2 emissions from buildings rose from 25 to 10 kg / m2 since 1980.
9 main production sites
To meet such demand, the engineers of the Copenhagen district heating system had to work extra hard. Created following the oil shocks of the seventy years, the network of the Danish capital provides heat to more than one million people living in the eighteen municipalities that make up Greater Copenhagen. Thus, it heats about 50 million square meters of ground – the equivalent of 425,000 homes, with four district heating systems connected together to a total output of 9,600 GWh.
Where is the heat produced ? The Copenhagen district heating is based on the organization and effective interconnection of multiple production sites:
4 waste incinerators, giving a combined production of 400 MW;
4 cogeneration plants using different fuels such as gas, coal, oil, straw or wood, for a combined production of 1800 MW;
a geothermal unit, producing 14 MW.
To manage peak demand, which is a common occurrence in this city which is regularly exposed to very cold temperatures, several production units have been connected to the network. The pipeline network extends for 50 km in and around the Danish capital. Maximum, it supports a temperature of 120 ° C and an operating pressure of 25 bar. 26 interchanges complement these facilities to transfer heat to the local distribution network!
The solution, quite complex, chosen by Copenhagen builds on a strong institutional commitment to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and to offer residents an affordable and efficient heat. For all these reasons, district heating is often Copenhagen model figure in Europe!
