Denmark-headed energy utility DONG Energy has announced that it has entered into a 15-year heat supply agreement with Danish district heat supply companies Eniig Varme, Energi Ikast Varme and Sunds Vand- og Varmeværk on the supply of district heating from its biomass-fired Herning Power Station in Herning, Denmark. The heat supply purchase agreement enables DONG Energy to invest in a flue gas condensing unit at the power plant improving the overall efficiency of the facility.
I’m pleased that Herning Power Station will continue to provide stable, green district heating to our heat customers in Herning, Ikast and Sunds. With the new agreement, we’re making Herning Power Station even more efficient and consequently more climate-friendly, remarked Thomas Dalsgaard, Executive Vice President at DONG Energy.
Herning Power Station is to deliver district heating to the Danish energy companies Eniig Varme, Energi Ikast Varme and ‘Sunds Vand- og Varmeværk’ until 2033. At the same time, the efficiency of the power station will be improved.
It’s been important for us to enter into an agreement which first and foremost gives our customers attractive heat prices and a stable heat supply based on sustainable fuels. We’re very pleased that improvements to the Herning Power Station have also been agreed upon in connection with the new agreement so that operations will become more efficient as well as greener, said Erling Vendelbo Klemmensen, Head of the heat division in Eniig Varme.
The agreement entails that Herning Power Station establishes a flue gas condensing plant that extracts the heat in the flue gas. This will enable Herning Power Station to render even more energy from the woodchips used as the primary fuel source.
In doing so, the power station will be capable of delivering the same amount of heat in the Danish municipalities Herning, Ikast and Sunds in 2019 with a fuel consumption which will be approximately 20 percent lower than today.
In Ikast, we’re satisfied with the results of the very lengthy negotiations as the agreement ensures continued green heat supply for our district heating customers, which means that we can maintain an attractive heat price for our part owners in Ikast, said Kaj Hansen, CEO of Energi Ikast.
The new heat agreement covers the period 2019-2033. DONG Energy expects to begin building the new flue gas condensation plant in Q4 2017.
With this new agreement, we’re looking forward to improved collaboration on district heating in the Herning-Ikast area. The agreement meets a general need for an affordable, reliable, efficient and green heat supply and a desire for local anchoring as well as proximity to the district heating customers in Sunds. The course for developing Sunds Vand- og Varmeværk during the next 10-15 years can now be set out more precisely within this framework, said Stig Østergaard Nielsen, Chairman of the Board of Sunds Vand- og Varmeværk.
Facts
About Herning Power Station
DONG Energy’s Herning Power Station has a capacity of 80 MW electricity and 174MJ/s heat. It was officially opened in 1982 as a coal-fired power station. In 2000, it was converted to use natural gas, and two years later it was converted to using primarily woodchips supplemented with wood pellets. Since 2009, the power plant has been able to run exclusively on biomass. The power station is able to deliver heat without also having to produce electricity. This may also be relevant in those cases where solar and wind generates enough power to cover demand.
