Local Success Stories

Local Success Stories

Country

Czech Republic

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Name of Example

Location

Prague District Heating System

(Prazska teplarenska a.s.)

The City of Prague, Capital of the Czech Republic

The Initiative

Shareholder Structure

Prazska teplarenska a.s. (Prague district heating company) was established in 1992. Its tradition, however, dates back as far as 1 September 1897 when the Electric Company of the Royal City of Prague was founded. Foundations to what now forms Prague district heating system were laid in the 60s when new concrete blocks of flats started to grow in Prague and district heating was preferred as the most suitable way to provide heating to the newly constructed buildings. Initially, these systems were based on domestic brown coal, later on heavy fuel oil and natural gas. In the 80s, poor air quality in the city gave rise to the idea to use waste heat generated in a power plant in the nearby town of Melnik and supply it as clean heat to Prague. The project was launched in 1987 and was interrupted by the fall of the communist regime in 1989.

Already privatized, Prazska teplarenska decided, together with the owner of the Melnik power plant – CEZ –, to go ahead with the project in the new environment of market economy. Heat supplies were no longer considered a social service and subsidies on heat prices were quickly cancelled. The heat feeder construction was finished in 1995. The expansion of the Prague district heating system continued during the 90s and in the beginning of the new millennium, several more areas, supplied with locally produced heat so far, were connected to the system. More than 50 natural-gas-fired boiler plants were decommissioned in the process so far. One larger plant was integrated into the system to cover peak demand in the heating season. The expansion of the Prague district heating system thus helped to decrease emissions in the heavily polluted city area while increasing total energy efficiency by means of growing share of heat from CHP on the total heat supply. Both coal-fired plants in Prague and in Melnik had to undergo complex retrofitting in order to fulfil new stringent air pollution requirements starting in 1998 as well.

The above described construction effort of the past more than two decades resulted in creation of one of the largest interconnected district heating systems in Europe. The system has been instrumental in abatement of air pollution while providing affordable and safe heat to more than 200 thousands of households and thousands of other customers from public as well as private sector in the city of Prague and nearby town of Neratovice. The system will be further expanding and other areas are considered to be connected.

District heating systems are sometimes perceived as remnants of collectivism of the communist era. In this context it is very interesting that - even though essentially conceived before revolution - the most of the development of Prague district heating system actually took place after 1990, under the conditions of market capitalism and without investment subsidy or grant of any kind.

Brief Description of the Main Plants

Note - Melnik CHP plant: All 6 boilers are connected to a common steam bus enabling each boiler to supply steam to any turbine. Due to the flexibility of extraction and condensation turbines the plant is also able to supply ancillary services to the power system, thus improving its reliability while generating additional revenues.

Note - Malesice II CHP plant:Only one turbine can be operated at a time due to the lack of steam. The plant also supplies steam to several industrial customers.

Besides the already mentioned facilities, hot water boilers using natural gas with the total output capacity of 525 MW are connected to the system. These boilers are used for covering peak load demand in the heating season and as a backup. There is also approximately 30 MW of heat output from municipal waste incineration plant used in the system.

Environmental Benefits and Innovative Technological Solutions

Decreased primary energy use and CO₂ emissions by means of cogeneration

By its very nature, district heating systems are ideal for combined heat and power production (CHP). As mentioned earlier, the Prague district heating system produces almost 1 TWh of electricity from high efficiency cogeneration (CHP) determined according to the methodology set out in the directive 2004/8/EC annually. Corresponding primary energy saving achieved in comparison with separate production of the same amount of heat and power amounts to 3,916 TJ. That represents 19 % of the total primary energy use for separate electricity and heat production. The saving was calculated by means of the methodology set out in the directive and efficiency reference values stipulated by the Commission Decision 2007/74/EC. For illustration, the primary energy saving achieved represents 93,528 tons of oil equivalent. Achieved saving of CO₂ emissions calculated under the assumption that the same fuels would have been used for separate electricity and heat production amounts to more than 360 thousand tons annually.

Abatement of classical emissions and utilization of produced waste

Emissions of classical pollutants from Prazska teplarenska plants in Prague have decreased substantially since early 1990, resulting especially from fuel changes, shut down of previous house boilers, low-NOx burners installations. Emissions of solid particles for instance decreased 57 times, emissions of sulphur dioxide 16 times. Emissions from the Melnik CHP plant also decreased substantially after installation of wet sulphur scrubbers between 1996 and 1998. All the operated plants meet the emission limits and caps set by the existing regulation, in some cases the emissions actually achieved are much lower than required by the law.

Utilization of secondary and renewable energy sources

Already more than 5 % of the heat in the Prague district heating system comes therefore from renewable sources of energy and another 5 % from secondary energy sources. This is quite a significant achievement, taking into account total magnitude of the system and limited availability of renewable energy sources in the Czech Republic, especially in Prague surroundings. There is, however, still a number of options to utilize renewable energy which is not possible to use in individual houses or buildings (especially in the context of large city) such as waste biomass, sewage treatment sludge, landfill gas, etc. Some of these options are currently under consideration by the company management.

Innovative technological solutions are applied aimed to improve energy efficiency, comfort or safety to the customers or company employees (pre-insulated pipelines, advanced way of communication, controls and regulation, real time regulation of district heating system based on demand prediction, remote access into control systems of the heat exchanger stations for optimal distribution of total load among different plants connected to the system; real-time analysis of ash content of hard coal being supplied to a boiler for changing characteristics of fuel (gama ash meters in CHP plant Malesice); improved maintenance with infrared imaging survey of heat distribution network, overall status of insulation and heat losses; modernization of pumping devices - frequency convertors reducing substantially electricity consumption; remote monitoring and control of heat exchange stations (more than 50 % of 2109 heat exchanger stations owned by Prazska teplarenska in 2008); remote reading of heat meters operating more than 9500 heat meters, 39 % remotely read ones.

Customer and Public Relations

Prazska teplarenska serves about 11,000 customers from residential, commercial as well as public sector who require reliable and safe heat supplies at a competitive price. In residential sector, customers include housing associations as well as associations of flat owners because heat is supplied to buildings rather than individual flats. Number of households using the heat from Prague district heating system can, nevertheless, be estimated at 200 thousands. The company aims at building up long-term, balanced relations with all its customers.

Customer satisfaction

Continual improvement of customer satisfaction forms together with safety of the heat supply, occupational safety and protection of environment one of the corner stones of its policy. Prazska teplarenska tries to increase customer satisfaction though speedy claim handling, providing for heat supplies outside the heating season on customer request, through bringing the duration of shutdown periods in summer to the minimum, easing the administrative burden or checking hot water quality. It also participates in the “Together for Prague” project implemented under the auspices of the Capital City of Prague. The project is aimed at improving services for Prague residents, facilitating access to services and their gradual unification among main utilities of Prague.

Prazska teplarenska implemented a system which regularly monitors and evaluates customer satisfaction as well as analyzes claims and/or complaints received from customers. In general, the surveys reveal our customers are satisfied with the service provided. Suggestions for further improvement of services such as better lucidity of invoices and price lists that came out of the survey recently are taken seriously and appropriate measures are under preparation. Customer relations department had to deal with 16 complaints on noise in the heating systems in 2008. Most of these cases were caused by unprofessional intervention into heating system, which was carried out without consultation with heat supplier – usually installation of thermostatic valves.

As ultimate indicator of customer satisfaction can serve rate of disconnections to newly connected customers. While there were only 24 disconnections in 2008, caused mostly by demolitions or changes in the use of the buildings or premises, the company was able to commence heat supplies to 56 new customers with total capacity of 36 MW.

Communication and marketing activities

Prazska teplarenska issues a quarterly bulletin wherein customers can find sector news, heating-related advice, including information as to how to save heat through efficient heating, as well as Prazska teplarenska news. Customers can also find information from the bulletin as well as that about the company, heat prices, summer shut down periods as well as district heating in general on the company web pages. Prazska teplarenska regularly organizes seminars on heat supplies for customer representatives as well as heating design engineers. The lectures on seminars are delivered both by the staff of Prazska teplarenska as well as independent experts in the field.

Social activities

Given its size and area of business, Prazska teplarenska is tightly linked to the Capital City of Prague has been following a good citizen policy for years. It is in the very interest of the company to help improve the life of Prague residents, which is why it supports various charity (health care, youth and elderly support), sports and cultural projects and events. Besides these activities, Prazska teplarenska provided rooms in the premises of its headquarters to the Czech National Disability Council.

QESMS

Prazska teplarenska has introduced an integrated quality, environment and OHS systems compliant with international norms ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 and is entitled to use following quality marks as well as title “Safe enterprise” awarded by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs to companies maintaining high standard in the field of occupational health and safety.

Nature of the impact

The described construction effort of the past more than two decades resulted in creation of one of the largest interconnected district heating systems in Europe. The system has been instrumental in abatement of air pollution while providing affordable and safe heat to more than 200 thousands of households and thousands of other customers from public as well as private sector in the city of Prague and nearby town of Neratovice. The system will be further expanding and some other areas are considered to be connected.

Main Barriers

District heating systems are sometimes perceived as remnants of collectivism of the communist era. Since the time of energy prices liberalisation their continual increase in general is badly accepted by the public, in heating sector there are even different prices, what makes the situation worse. Among the number of customers and supplied areas, there are good or worse experiences in communication with local municipalities and in the residential sector with flats owners associations. The district heating system development has been managed in a quite strong competitive environment of the natural gas sector together with gas boilers producers. It is also difficult to change the developers projects designs.

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Name of Example

Location

Successful story - TREBIC

TREBIC - Sousthern Moravia

The Initiative

In 2009 TTS Energo s.r.o. (private company) supplies district heat to 9700 flats, what means nearly 70 %, by the

statistics roughly 26700 inhabitants. Rest of the market – mostly family houses and buildings in places where it is not technically possible to connect them to district heating, use more decentralised or individual NG heat sources and in old settlements sources on fossil fuels (wood, coal). The use of biomass fuels decrease primary energy and CO2 emissions in comparison to other available energy options.

Since the year 1995 the TTS company has operated heat supply of the town Trebic from a centralised heat supply system. It has been managed from original decentralized heat management constituted of block boiler houses, house boilers and heat exchange stations to build stepwise a centralised district heating supply network in 3 the largest city areas of Trebic (District Heating plants North, South and West).

In total there have been laid more than 25 km of new preinsulated 2-pipes distribution networks and about 20 block boiler houses and 40 boiler rooms on natural gas have been closed down.

History of the plant has started in the year 1987, when the plant has been taken into operation as a heat source burning fossil fuels for a training centre (CEZ NP Dukovany). For the needs of the

centre the boiler house had several times overdimensioned load (similarly as other boiler houses stepwise closing down in the town). Due to those reasons the operation of the training centre boiler house was stopped and natural gas supply network for the centre was constructed in 1991.

The company TTS Energo has bought this cetre (the boiler house, a chimney and a place for fuel stores) with dismantled technology in December 2000 and integrated it into their project of heat and hot water supply concept of the North part of Trebic. Already from the beginning the project has been conceived as a multifuel ecological district heating plant.

Biomass utilisation for energy purposes has started in Trebic in 2002, when the ever first boiler

(VESKO-B, with the load 3,0 MW) for wooden biomass combustion (saw dust, wood shavings, bark, chops, wood chips) has been taken into operation. An essential step to biomass utilisation for power production has been realised in the beginning of the year 2005, at first a thermo-oil boiler on biomass burning has been introduced of a heat load 7 MWQ and consequently an ORC unite (Organic Rankin Cycle) with electric output 1,0 MWe. A construction and connection of the thermo-oil boiler enables combined heat and power production (hereafter CHP) or only heat production, when all the heat from the thermo-oil circle is lead through a heat exchanger and an involved circle into the centralised district heating system. In that time it was ever the first installation of such a technology in the Czech Republic.

For covering of daily fluctuations in heat and hot water demand an accumulation tank serves of a volume 1800 m³, that enables also a continuous operation of the CHP unite in a stabile mode.

A project of the District Heating plant North has been completed at the beginning of the year

2007, when ever the first boiler on straw combustion in Trebic has been introduced, with 5 MW_Q load. The fuel for the new boiler is corn straw, rape straw, feeding sorrel, these are delivered in a pack form. The main advantage of straw as an energy source is its good availability. A decision about the straw burning boiler was convenient, because there is a useful potential of corn straw roughly 18 000 t/a in Trebic surroundings. By the boiler there have been afterwards built two storages for straw, each of capacity 800 tunes, what ensures a sufficient stock of the fuel.

As additional sources two boilers on natural gas there are installed in the District Heating plant

North, with the loads 5 MW and 6 MW and two boilers with combined burners on light fuel oil

(LFO)/natural gas with the loads 5 and 6 MW. For an own consumption of the plant there have been installed two CHP units on natural gas of the load 0,4 MWQ and 0,31 MWe. Heat from the cogeneration units is delivered into district heating network.

Together with the plants construction a large construction of new distribution heat networks took

place gradually. In total 16 km warm water distribution networks were put under the ground in 2 localities as 2-pipe system of pre-insulated pipes. The total load of the DH plant North means 37.4 MW_Q and 1,31 MWe.

DH plant North provides heat for roughly 4500 households, 3 basic and 4 nursery schools, other

buildings of services including an indoor swimming pool. In Trebic there is the really first boiler house in the Czech Republic under operation, which can from wood and straw in the same time produce heat and electricity, respectively can provide warm water, heating and lightening.

In the DH plant North (37.4 MWQ and 1.6 MWe) there are at present time the installations as follows:

– Wood biomass boiler with the load 3.0 MWQ

– Thermo-oil boiler on wood biomass burning with the heat load 7 MWQ

– ORC unite with electric output 1 MWe

– Boiler on straw packs combustion with 5 MWQ load

– Accumulation tank of the capacity 1800 m3 and load 10.5 MWQ

– Peak and reserve boilers (NG boilers of 5 a 6 MWQ and boilers with multifuel

– burners LFO/NG 5 and 6 MWQ)

– Cogeneration units MT 132 a MT 140, each with 0.4 MWQ and 0.31 MWe

– Distribution network 15.8 km (warm water)

The heat sold in the year 2008 from DH plant North: 175 000 GJ

From biomass was produced: 91%

Customers: 4751 households, 4 schools, 6 nursery schools, a hotel and swimming pool

District Heating plant South

DH plant South was by origin a steam plant for an industrial company UNIPLET built at the turn

of 60th and 70th decades. TTS energo s.r.o. has bought this plant in the middle of the year 2005. An old technology including boilers and one of mazut stock tank were cleared away. The whole reconstruction of the plant was divided into several stages.

Already in the first stage in the summer of 2007 a boiler on straw burning (VESKO-S, with 5 MW heat load) became a basic source. The second stage main feature was an installation of natural gas boiler with the load 11,2 MWQ, which was equipped with combined LFO/NG burner. Further a 5 MWQ natural gas boiler was installed and 3 CHP units serving to cover an own electricity consumption of the plant.

In the third stage (February 2008) the intentions of biomass use continued, a straw boiler with

the 5 MWQ load was installed. Additionally a construction of 2 straw storages and a chimney (90 m

high) incineration took place. The chimney with a new stainless incineration presently serves to lead exhaust gases of both straw boilers. The original mazut stock tank was rebuilt on an warm water accumulator with the water capacity 2500 m³ and heat load up to 10 MWQ, that role is to cover peak consumptions during a day.

Both straw boilers operates in an automatic mode, their supply provides an automatic bridge

crane. The already mentioned 2 straw storages are integrated parts of the area, each has dimensions 70 x 18 m and the height 9 m. By their full filling there is possible to store 3000 t straw.

Beside a housing estate also a complex of industrial areas and a shop centre form the south side

of the town. The reconstruction of the boiler house took place together with a complete replacement of the distribution network. Smaller natural gas boiler houses were gradually closed down in the residential zone (1900 flats connected) and industrial companies were connected, which previously ensured heat production in their own plants. To the centralised system of district heating was connected also a hospital.

In the DH plant South (27 MWQ ) there are at present following installations:

– 2 x boiler on straw combustion, each of the load 5.0 MWQ

– Accumulation tank of the capacity 2800 m3 and the heat load 10 MW

– Boiler with combined burner LFO/NG 12 MWQ

– NG boiler 5 MWQ

– CHP units 132 kW, 2 x 140 kW, 1 x 75 kW, 6 x 22 kW

– distribution network 7.8 km (warm water)

The heat sold in the year 2008 from DH plant South: 105 000 GJ

From biomass was produced: 90%

Customers: housing estate (1886 households), a hospital and business buildings (60 buildings).

SUMMARY - DISTRICT HEATING TREBIC

Company TTS Energo s.r.o. in Trebic today supplies with heat from renewable energy sources

(biomass) more than 9700 households, also schools, buildings of shops and services, business

companies. In 2009 there is expected from 375,000 GJ heat production 85 % from biomass, what means that Trebic is among the first places within the Czech Republic in heat production from pure

biomass (aside mixed combustion with fossil fuels in larger power plants with heat extraction).

The year consumption in 2008 in Trebic represented 20, 000 tunes wood biomass and 10,000 tunes

straw. The use of biomass is annually increased. Already now there is paid attention to another project in Trebic – the DH plant West. Until the end of this year there will be put in operation another boiler on wood biomass combustion with the load 3 MWQ, what will create already the third multifuel heat plant in Trebic. Thanks to biomass utilisation for heat energy production in district heating there is in Trebic the heat energy price the lowest among the towns of the region.

Accumulation tanks help very efficiently to avoid short time operation of peak boilers during morning peak demand hours and especially after weekends, when some business and service customers have lower the heat demand.

Straw is delivered should have moisture about 16 %, in high pressed packs (120 x 70 x 240; 120 x 90 x 240 or 120 x 120 x 240 cm). This technology saves energy of transport, handling and storage. The boiler of 5 MWQ load consumes roughly 5 packs per hour. Parts of packs are cut from the bottom (3 – 4 x) and pushed into the boiler without other treatment.

The company operates their own technology for green wood biomass processing. Boilers can accept wood pieces from 4 cm till 50 cm and even by smaller stones can pass the feeding ways without any damages on the technology and boilers.

Cogeneration units lower the costs producing electricity for own consumption of the plants, heat is

delivered into the DH networks Thanks to the efficient technologies the DH price is one of the lowest within the district and customers have not been recently exposed to impacts of sharp increases of NG prices and supply problems.

TTS energo s.r.o. activities in PR and customers relations

TTS Energo s.r.o. in cooperatin with civil association EKOBIOENERGO operate the INFORMATION CENTRE of RENEWABLE ENERGIES at the DH plant North. Additionally to

meetings with customers and potential business partners there are hold various seminars and training courses. Since the year 2008 there are nearly every day educational excursions of students and pupils of basic and grammar schools. Excursions are targeted especially to the field of renewable energy sources and they complement education in physics, biology and elological culture. Visitors there have a unique possibility to see in practice utilisation of wood and straw for combined heat and power production. More than 2500 pupils and students passed through the gates of the DH plant North during the year.

Available articles from local newspapers:

EU Green Plan already in Force (regional magazine)

“DH Trebic fulfills given targets in RES already now and with the lowest prices for customers

within the region.”

Estate housing in Trebic can get along without the Russian gas (regional newspapers)

DH plant in Trebic again more ecological (www.tts.cz)

How Costly Will Be Heating in This Year? Heat from Biomass Is Cheeper Than from Coal

10 years that Shook Heat Supplies in Trebic (professinal magazine “3T” issued by the ADH CR)

TTS energo s.r.o. is a member of the following organisations:

- COGEN Czech

- CZ BIOM

- Association for District Heating of the Czech Republic

- EKOBIOENERGO

Nature of the impact

Replacement of the decentralised heat sources (20 block boiler houses and 40 boiler rooms), switching off the fossil fuels, stepwise building of the centralised district heating supply network based on modern efficient CHP, ORC technologies and RES (biomass) use. Economical and environmental benefits for the final consumers and the town environment.

Main Barriers

There have not been very strong barriers or difficulties in Trebic, the previous energy plant facility of the training centre (the building, chimney and especially the permission of the energy production facility) was the main advantage (the base of the DH plant) and the previously existing heat supply from decentralised heat sources as well.

At the beginning of the cooperation with biomass and especially straw producers (agriculture companies) there were problems with quality of straw deliveries.