Green heat to the Copenhagen area

Now, everything is ready for the conversion of unit 2 on the Avedøre Power Station. The approval from the authorities is in place, and DONG Energy and the power supply companies in the Copenhagen Area, VEKS and Metropolitan Copenhagen Heating Transmission company (CTR), have agreed on a heat agreement running until 2027. The agreement entails an extension of unit 2 so that it future, it can run 100% on wood pellets. The total investment for the extension amounts to approximately DKK 100 million.

“It´s a good heat agreement that we´ve concluded with CTR and VEKS,” says Thomas Dalsgaard, Executive Vice President of Thermal Power, DONG Energy:”The fact that we can extend our capacity to burn wood pellets is a central part of DONG Energy´s strategy for renewable electricity and heat production. In this way, we reduce our CO2 emission.”

The world´s first CO2-neutral capital
The biomass-based heat agreement is fully in line with the power supply companies VEKS and CTR´s wishes to increase the share of biomass-based power for the Copenhagen area.

“The transition to more green power from the Avedøre Power Station will presumably reduce the CO2 emission from the heat supply of the Copenhagen area by slightly more than 10% annually from 2015 onwards. It is a good contribution to CTR´s target to supply CO2-neutral heat to its municipal owners by 2025, and a good opportunity for Copenhagen to become the world´s first CO2-neutral capital”, says Ayfer Baykal, Chairman of the Board of Directors of CTR.

“We´ve a specific wish to offer green heat to the district heating customers located in the 12 municipalities which VEKS services. But it´s also important that the green heat can compete with individual heating based on natural gas or oil. Otherwise, it is not possible to pursue the national climate and energy policy targets to convert natural gas customers to district heating. The new heat agreement with DONG Energy is an important step in the right direction”, says Lars Gullev, Managing Director of VEKS and Chairman of DBDH.