Abstract
The district heating operator Fortum and the city of Espoo have set a goal to abandon the use of coal in district heating production and increase the share of renewable sources to 95% by the year 2029. Among renewable fuels and heat pumps, waste heat utilization has an important role in Fortum’s plans for the decarbonization of district heating production, and Fortum is considering the possibility of utilizing waste heat from a large data center in its district heating network. The goal of this paper is to investigate the feasibility and required amount of waste heat to achieve this goal. Two different operation strategies are introduced—an operation strategy based on marginal costs and an operation strategy prioritizing waste heat utilization. Each strategy is modeled with three different electricity price scenarios. Because the low temperature waste heat from a data center must be primed by heat pumps, the electricity price has a significant impact on the feasibility of waste heat utilization. Prioritizing waste heat utilization leads to higher production costs, but a lower waste heat capacity is needed to reach the goal of 95% renewables in production. The higher electricity price emphasizes the differences between the two operation strategies. Waste heat utilization also leads to significant reductions of CO2 emissions.
Highlights
The Finnish city of Espoo (290,000 inhabitants) and the district heating (DH) operator, Fortum, have set the goal of ending the use of coal in district heating by the year 2025
In the studied price scenarios, it is possible to reach the goal of a high amount of renewable district heating production
In the reference scenarios for the lowest electricity prices, revenues from electricity production only have a slight impact on the total production costs, and it is possible to lower the production costs below the reference level via waste heat utilization
Summary
The Finnish city of Espoo (290,000 inhabitants) and the district heating (DH) operator, Fortum, have set the goal of ending the use of coal in district heating by the year 2025. The DH network provides heat for over 80% of the population in Espoo and the neighboring cities of Kirkkonummi and Kauniainen. The total annual heat demand is about 2.6 TWh. The majority of Espoo’s heat supply is produced by combined heat and power (CHP) plants, and coal is in an important role as a heat source [1]. Ending the use of coal is expected to increase the share of renewable sources in heat production from 26% to 85% by the year 2026. By 2029, the share of renewables is expected to reach
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