Heat planning strategy for Vestforbraending

Vestforbraending is one of the largest waste management companies in Northern Europe. The company owns and operates a combined heat and power producing waste-to-energy facility and a district heating network, which is interconnected with the regional district heating system in Copenhagen.


The energy planning strategy shows that an enlargement of the local district heating market will be very profitable for Vestforbraending and the Danish society, and that it will reduce the CO2 emissions significantly.
 

Ramboll has as an in-house consultant to Vestforbraending provided services to the company for 45 years, including strategic heat supply planning and design of district heating and waste-to-energy units 1-5.


Since the market was shared between natural gas and district heating 25 years ago, many assumptions have changed. There is now much more energy from waste and it is now a priority to save CO2 emissions etc. Therefore Vestforbraending asked Ramboll to prepare a heat plan strategy to identify the least cost solution for Vestforbrænding and for the Danish society. The strategy showed that it would be very profitable to replace large natural gas boilers with district heating, in total around 350,000 MWh/year. The profitability of the project for Vestforbræding corresponds to an internal rate of return of more than 20%, which is far more than the loan interest rate of around 4%.

The next step for Vestforbraending was to prepare project proposals, which in accordance with the Heat Supply Act were approved by the city councils.

As the inter-municipal company has the objective to minimize the costs of heat supply and waste management for the residents, both the waste costumers and the heat costumers can look forward to lower prices. 
 

More info at the Ramboll profile