Kuopio Energy supplies electricity and district heating as well as associated services to Kuopio and surrounding areas. Kuopio Energy’s electricity production is based on peat which comes from the peatlands of eastern Finland. In Kuopio, District heating covers more than 90% of the city’s heating energy requirement.

The main target of the project was to quantify the potential for heat recovery from alternative heat sources into Kuopio city wide District Heating network with the aid of heat pump solutions. The alternative heat sources considered in this study included municipal treated sewage water, and excess heat from potential district cooling customers and large retail buildings.

The project was divided into three separate sub-projects according to heat source:

Feasibility of sewage water heat pump station:

• Dimensioning for optimal capacity for heat pump station
• Heat production simulation (heat recovery potential from treated sewage water and surplus production from lake water)
• Investment and O&M cost estimates for plant life-cycle
• Alternative avoided heat production cost estimates
• Cash flow analysis for several heat pump solution scenarios

Feasibility of district cooling:

• Cooling demand in Kuopio area
• Network scenarios and preliminary design for networks
• Production Capacity optimization included the following technologies
o Heat pumps and heat recovery potential into district heating network (combined heating and cooling, CHC)
o Other technologies considered included compressor and absorption chillers, and free cooling from the nearby lake
o Accumulator optimization

• Cooling production simulation
• Preliminary district cooling plant design
• Investment and O&M cost estimates
• Cash flow analysis for several district cooling scenarios with alternative production and network options

Feasibility of recovery of excess heat from large retail buildings:

• Quantifying the total potential of excess heat from large retail buildings
• Preliminary design for the heat recovery system including
o Heat pump capacity optimization
o Connecting to and replacing of customers’ existing air conditioning units with heat pump units
o Connection to the district heating network

• Preliminary layout drawings for the heat recovery system
• Investment and O&M cost estimates for plant life-cycle
• Cash flow analysis for heat recovery system
• Appraisal of possibility for two-way heat sales business

The overall heat recovery potential from alternative heat sources in Kuopio region, and the other results from the three sub-projects were summarized in the final report.

Client: Kuopio Energy Ltd.