Visit to Serbia

From 19 to 21 April, the Serbian District Heating Association, TOPS and DBDH co-arranged the 6th biannual meeting with district heating on top of the agenda.

This year the event took place in the mountains of Zlatibor and gathered the attendance of many representatives from the Serbian district heating sector, managers of Serbian heating plants, leaders and decision makers in the Serbian municipalities.

The theme of the District Heating Days was “Public Private Partnerships and Renewable energy vs. classic organic fuels, and the subject was coverered by former chairman of DBDH, Mr. Lars Gullev, CEO of VEKS. Mr. Gullev presented a very interesting showcase involving the partnership of VEKS and the private company, CP Kelco, one of the world’s largest producers of pectin based on citrus peels.

This year UN Environment participated also in the biannual meeting through District Energy in Cities Initiative, in which Belgrade is one of the six pilot cities globally. The Initiative will support delivery of an Action Plan to modernize the district heating network including network rehabilitation, connection of renewables and waste heat. Experience from Belgrade can be transferred to other cities in Serbia.

DBDH is an active partner in this project. UNEP was represented by Celia Martinez, giving an overview of the initiative, as well as Senior Energy Advisor Romanas Savickas, who presented international best practices on energy mapping.

The presentations were followed by focusing on energy mapping in Belgrade, presented by Bojan Bogdanovic, Deputy director of Belgradska Elektrane.

Presentations by the participating Danish companies complemented one another to a large extent which underlined that all the different Danish manufacturers are part of the same system and cooperate extensively on district heating projects both in Denmark and abroad. The afternoon was dedicated to work shop meetings for deeper discussions of the solutions the Danish technology have to offer, and for two full hours the talks were very intense and fruitful.

Seminar program (Presentations are available for download): 
Public-Private-Partnerships and Renewable energy vs. classic (organic) fuels, Mr. Lars Gullev, Chairman, DBDH
Intelligent energy metering Mr. Per Sandström, Kamstrup A/S
BAS products – end user benefit Mr. Steffen Andresen, BA SYSTEMS
System solutions and financinc solutions Mr. Oddgeir Gudmundsson, Danfoss
Water – a factor of energy efficiency/VODA – faktro energetske efikasnosti Mr. Bojan Sretenovic. HYDRO-X
Defining network efficiency Mr. Andrei Ovidiu Bita, Logstor
The world of Salling Plast. Mr. Ove Lynge, Salling Plast A/S
Application of Hybrid heat exchangers in District Heating Systems Mr. Zoltan Pap, SPX Flow Technology
Overview of the District Energy in Cities Initiative, Celia Martínez, Technical Expert District Energy in Cities Initiative, UN Environment
International best practices on energy mapping for district energy, Romanas Savickas, Senior Energy Advisor , UNEP-DTU Partnership
Possibilities for energy mapping in Belgrade, Bojan Bogdanovic, Deputy Director of Engineering at Belgrade’s utility company