Denmark-headed energy utility major Ørsted broke ground on a DKK 200 million (≈ EUR 26.85 million) investment in a flue gas condensing unit at its biomass-fired Herning Power Station. By extracting the residual heat from the flue gas, the consumption of woodchips and wood pellets can be reduced by approximately 20 percent while still being able to supply the same amount of district heat to the Danish municipalities of Herning, Ikast and Sunds.
It’s really good news for our climate that we join forces with our heat customers to make Herning Power Station even more efficient. It’s already a green power station running on sustainable biomass, and now we’ll be able to reduce the fuel consumption significantly, thus ensuring that the power station is a competitive alternative to fossil fuels, said Thomas Dalsgaard, Executive Vice President and CEO of Bioenergy & Thermal Power at Ørsted.
New district heat off-take agreement
The conversion project is launched at the same time as Ørsted has signed a 15-year district heat supply agreement with Eniig Varme, Energi Ikast Varme and Sunds Vand og Varme from the Herning Power Station, an agreement that was announced in April 2017.
The power station 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 as fuel. Since 2009, it has been able to run exclusively on biomass – primarily woodchips supplemented with wood pellets.
We have an exciting period ahead of us, and I’m convinced that in future, it’ll become even more attractive to be a district heating customer in Herning. We can see that district heating to a much wider extent than before is becoming the preferred choice for clients when deciding on which type of heating to instal in new buildings. Customers are very conscious about choosing a greener profile, and here district heating is a cost-effective solution compared to other types of heating, said Erling Vendelbo Klemmensen, Head of the Heat Division at Eniig Varme.
The establishment of a flue gas condensation plant that will exploit the residual heat in the flue, making the plant more efficient. The investment is thus a natural continuation of the initiatives taken since the full conversion to biomass in 2009, which the company says have made Herning Power Station increasingly more “green and more efficient”.
I’m very pleased that the conversion of Herning Power Station now becomes a reality within the agreed budget framework for the benefit of our consumers, said Jørgen Mosegaard, CEO of Energi Ikast Varme.
The conversion includes the construction of a new building to house the plant as well as the installation of all the mechanical components required to draw energy from the flue before discharge to the stack. Preparations for construction work have begun and the new flue gas condensation unit is expected to be ready during the latter half of 2019.
It makes sense to join forces to optimise the existing heat production and utilise the established infrastructure instead of looking for other solutions. I’ve great confidence that we, following the conversion of Herning Power Station, will be able to fulfil the environmental and economic assumptions which have formed the basis for the entire project. Consumers in Sunds can, therefore, look forward to greener heat as well as stable and competitive heat prices. This is basically what we as a local district heating cooperative continuously strive to ensure for our members, said Stig Østergaard Nielsen, Chairman of the Board of Sunds Vand og Varme.
