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.

This feasibility work was a follow-up for the “Heat Recovery Potential in Kuopio Region” carried out by Greenfield Consulting in during 2014–2015.
The main target of the project was to evaluate a technical and financial viability of the local centralized cooling system including production plant and network against customer’s alternative cooling system.

Lake water condensing compressor chiller (chillers with variable speed drive) plant with free cooling from the lake was selected for the technical concept of the centralized cooling system. Considered customers’ alternative cooling system were based on the multiple individual air condensing compressor chiller units.

The project included the following tasks:

• Cooling production capacity optimization (free cooling / compressor chillers)
• Flow diagram and dimensioning for local centralized cooling plant
• Layout for local centralized cooling plant
• Cooling production simulations (including electricity and water consumptions)
• Investment and O&M cost estimates for the centralized and customer’s alternative systems
• Cash flow model for the centralized and customer’s alternative systems
• Financial analysis
• Advising the Client in preliminary cooling sales agreement

Client: Kuopio Energy Ltd.