Cooling produces low-temperature district heating in Høje Taastrup

In the project “Cool District Heating”, a consortium led by consulting company Cowi will develop and test new low-temperature district heating solutions in Høje Taastrup and in Lund, Sweden.

In Denmark, 400 consumers in an area of ​​35,000 square meters between Høje Taastrup Station and shopping centre City 2 – with existing district heating network – will be converted to low-temperature district heating. Høje Taastrup Fjernvarme has previously tested low temperature district heating, so the process is not completely new to them. In contrast, the concept of connecting district cooling with low-temperature district heating is new to them.

Project manager at Høje Taastrup Fjernvarme Uffe Schleiss says that in a previous project, district heating water has been sent at a temperature of 53 degrees to 75 plots, which proved to make good sense. The pipe loss was much lower, 12-13 percent than at traditional heat temperature of 70 degrees, where it was 41 percent. Now they have upscaled a little, but not on the temperature. The expectations for the project are the same: a significantly lower management loss than the 30 percent it is today. That is, from 75 plots to 400 consumers, where new district heating units are to be installed.

This is really a big challenge. The technology is relatively well known. The challenge lies elsewhere: “We have begun persuading that it is a good idea. You have 400 consumers who have district heating today, so they can not see any reason for going out investing. They are going to have to set up a whole new unit. Today they are connected as one single consumer. Now they have to be connected as 400 consumers, so they also have to pay for connection”, explains Uffe Schleiss, who says that the savings the consumer achieves by switching to individual supply will cover the costs of connection and plant. “So there are no rent increases or increased costs for district heating,” he emphasizes.

Of cooling comes heating
The project “Cool District Heating”, which has received 30 million DKK from the EU, will by means of low-temperature district heating reduce the heat loss and save on the energy.