Two Jamestown Board of Public Utilities engineers received first-hand experience with the Danish approach to thermal energy and district heating as they participated in a New York State thermal energy delegation to Denmark hosted and funded by the Danish District Energy Advisory Board, the New York State public power utility said on Jan. 7.
Officials from the New York Power Authority also traveled to Denmark as part of the delegation from New York State. Specifically, Ravi Shankar, PE, Customer Project Delivery, Director, Energy Efficiency, Southeastern New York (SENY) region, at NYPA, and Brian McVoy, Customer Project Delivery, Director, Capital region, at NYPA were included in the delegation.
NYPA and other New York State entities were invited by the Danish Government to discuss and learn about thermal energy systems, specifically central district heating networks.
Denmark is one of the world leaders in this area and New York State has a significant focus on this as does NYPA, especially with its Decarbonization Leadership 15 effort to assist 15 of its municipal and state agency customers with decarbonization plans and our other energy efficiency and clean energy work in the state.
New York Power Authority
In an interview with Public Power Current, Shankar was asked to discuss how Denmark is a world leader when it comes to thermal energy systems and networks.
He said that Denmark “is definitely a leader in the world of transitioning to a greener environment and a fossil-free future.”
The country “started this journey back in the 70s…so it’s not new to them. The started at the social level – getting buy in from the people that live in Denmark about what the strategy is to reduce CO2 emissions and increase renewable energy usage.” Shankar noted that Denmark is “shooting for net zero by 2050 and I think they’re currently at 76 percent.”
He also discussed the key takeaways for him from his trip to Denmark. “Learning about their role in the worldwide effort to reduce carbon emissions, gaining a better understanding of the technologies and business models used to implement district heating, were the main takeaways.”
He noted district heating is used throughout the country. “It’s a concept that isn’t difficult to understand, technically speaking. It’s a very effective solution toward a net-zero future.”
The biggest takeaway “for us was how do they set up these networks, technically and what are the business models. We also wanted to better understand the partnerships that they’ve developed between the private public industry to obtain the funding to implement these networks.”
He said it was a “real eye-opening experience to see the buy in from everybody that’s involved.”
Shankar learned more about district heating, “how it works, what’s the technologies that they use, how it benefits the customer, the funding that they had to come up with” to fund projects.
“These district networks that they have help the consumer with their quality of life. The central heating plants are not there to make a profit, which was amazing. The communities themselves, in some cases, own some of these district heating plants, so they have a lot of say” when it comes to plant operations and how money is spent, said Shankar.
He noted that activities during the trip included meeting with officials with the Danish energy agency and visiting multiple central heating plaints utilizing renewables technologies and a waste incineration plant that utilizes heat recovery.
Shankar said he would highly recommend that other public power utilities take a closer look at what Denmark’s efforts toward net zero and having their employees take similar international trips.
In his role at NYPA, Shankar works with New York City, as well as Westchester County, N.Y., customers.
Jamestown BPU
BPU Deputy General Manager-Electric Kristofor Sellstrom and BPU Retool District Heat Manager Derek Johnson attended a four-day conference which involved representatives of New York State agencies, NYPA, colleges and other municipalities.
The trip aimed to explore how Danish best practices and innovation in district heating can assist in New York’s pursuit of decarbonization in electric production.
The BPU is progressing its Retool/District Heating initiative, a project that will expand and improve the utility’s District Heating system, established in 1984.
The utility division currently serves 70 customers and more than 700 apartments. A two-year study by Ramboll Engineering suggested new methods for updating the BPU’s heating sources and recommended enlarging its customer base.
As part of the Denmark summit, institutions such as the Danish Energy Agency, the State of Green Denmark, the Danish Board of District Heating and Energinet presented to the twenty New Yorkers invited to attend.
The delegation included representatives of the New York Independent System Operator, the State University of New York, the State Construction Fund, the New York State Department of Public Service, NYPA, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the City Government of Mount Vernon and the Jamestown BPU.
The program incorporated visits to facilities in Denmark, such as Aalborg University Copenhagen, the Greater Copenhagen Utility, Copenhill/Amager Bakke and Smorum Kraftvarme.
Touring these locations exposed participants to the district heating system in Copenhagen, which supplies 99% of all Copenhagen buildings with district heating. Copenhill is a state-of-the-art waste-to-energy plant that is a Copenhagen landmark.
This plant includes a rooftop ski slope, which showcases how industrial sites can be integrated into urban life while providing utility infrastructure. Smorum Kraftvarme is a consumer-owned district heating cooperative that produces heat from a solar thermal plant and air source heat pumps.
The Taarnby Utility, just outside Copenhagen, exemplified a district energy system at a smaller municipal utility.
Jamestown BPU said that visiting the Taarnby Utility exposed the group to how smaller municipalities manage district heating operations and collaborate with larger utilities.
Ramboll Energy, a key player in developing district energy systems worldwide, also presented to the delegation.
Ramboll Managing Director Hannes Reuter offered insights into the company’s approach to designing and engineering sustainable energy solutions, including thermal energy networks.
Sellstrom noted that he was inspired by the prospect of applying the Danish approach to Jamestown’s district heating system.
“Denmark’s comprehensive focus on meeting the energy needs of its communities and their economy illustrates how community thermal energy networks could support New York’s decarbonization,” said Sellstrom. “Their systems utilize solar, large-scale thermal storage, waste to energy, waste heat recovery and the use of industrial heat pumps, technologies we could use here to retool our own District Heating Division.”
Johnson said that the systems in Denmark are of a similar age to Jamestown. “The Danish are finding that steel pipe installed in the same time frame as ours is in good shape when excavated, except where insulation is compromised,” said Johnson. “We found that encouraging.”
“They have some innovations we are evaluating for our system here in Jamestown,” continued Johnson. “Denmark is using heat transfer from their wastewater treatment plants, one method suggested for our Retool/District Heat initiative.”
Their systems serve residential, industrial and commercial customers in Denmark, he noted. “They have pre-packaged heat and hot water units for smaller customers and store hot water in tanks and manmade covered ponds for peak heating periods.”
“Their thermal energy networks provide a more reliable and resilient energy system than electricity alone could,” added Sellstrom. “Their techniques leverage low-cost, long-duration and scalable thermal energy storage which they have deployed at scale at an order of magnitude lower cost than current electric storage options with no harmful byproducts or mining needs. They simply leverage large hot water tanks/reservoirs and use that thermal energy to provide long-duration energy security for their communities.”
Jamestown BPU General Manager David Leathers expressed appreciation for the opportunity provided to the BPU by the government of Denmark to educate the BPU engineers about that country’s thermal energy and district heating systems.
“As we work to improve and expand our District Heating system and customer base, it was a perfect time for our engineers to be hosted by the country of Denmark, along with other representatives of other New York State utilities and agencies,” Leathers said.
“Jamestown’s District Heating system, which has existed since the early 1980s, is of special interest, particularly to New York State, in that we already have a fully operational project that can be improved upon to meet the State’s goals for green energy projects,” Leathers said.
