Conversion from gas is a topic that is highly relevant and important, unfortunately, even more, so these days. There are not manylights in the dark these days, but one small positive story is that now Europe has been forced to look at the dependency on gas.
Morten Jordt Duedahl
Jesper Møller-Larsen
Jens Andersen
Thereby the green transition has been accelerated significantly. We want to get away from gas, not only to be green but also for strong political reasons. This podcast will introduce you to how we already today convert buildings from gas heating to district heating in Denmark. The aim is to inspire others to start their gas conversions and, as always, an invitation to knowledge sharing. We will focus on how the conversion is done. In short, the key to unlocking this, is planning, customer relations and creating trust. The more specific recommendations from the two experts are…. No, now you must listen to the podcast.
Meet the experts
To shed light on how this conversion can be done, I have invited two colleagues who are working with converting more of their cities from gas to district heating every day. Jens Andersen, managing director in Næstved District Heating will discuss with Jesper Møller-Larsen, managing director of the district heating company in Aalborg – a somewhatlarger city.
Customer interaction
From this podcast, I learned how both experts work dedicated and deliberated customer interaction. Internationally, sometimes feel that planners are a bit afraid or reluctant to talk to their customers directly – but don’t be! You will learn that in Denmark, we are no afraid to interact with customers.
We are all in the same boat
All countries are determined to decarbonise their societies with different deadline, and that deadline is very, very soon. Heat is an essential factor in this decarbonisation as heat is responsible for more than 40% of the energy used in Europe. We already have solutions to decarbonisation for heat – district heating. District heating is a necessity to be successful in the conversion away from natural gas.
In Germany, all municipalities will soon have to make energy and heat plans. In the Netherlands, they will stop their own natural gas production and need to find other solutions. Both England and Scotland implement planning laws, subsidies and much more to drive this development. Today, it is even more evident that we need to get started. So, we are all in the same boat – we must get rid of natural gas and find other solutions. And when I say “same boat” – I mean it, we are ALL in the same boat – no matter if you are Danish, German, or Chinese.
Listen in and learn a lot more!
Facts about Aalborg Forsyning (Utility)
- 250.000 inhabitans
- Multiutility company
- In the city itself, 99% are connected
- 2.000 km pipes
- Three major heat suppliers, CHP on coal but will be taken out in a few years, 25% from WtE, 20 surplus heat suppliers another 25%.
- Expansions (5% growth per year) connecting other cites, organic growth in the city.
- Owned by the municipality – political organization,the city council is very ambitious.
Facts about Næstved Fjernvarme (Utility)
- 43.000 inhabitants
- Owned by the customers, 6.000 customers
- 250.000 MWh.
- 200 km pipe network, app 2.000.000 m2.
- Heat comes only (98%) from a nearby waste incineration plant (CHP). The rest is from gas boilers for peak and reserve load.
- Gas conversion: 1,700 houses should be converted by 2024