Jamestown Board of Public Utilities engineers are pictured during a recent energy delegation to Denmark. The trip was hosted and paid for by the Danish District Energy Advisory Board.

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 state thermal energy delegation to Denmark hosted and funded by the Danish District Energy Advisory Board.

Kristofer Sellstrom, BPU deputy general manager for electric, and Derek Johnson, BPU Retool District Heat manager, attended a four-day conference which involved representatives of New York state agencies, the New York Power Authority, 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 to expand and improve the utility’s District Heating system, established in 1984. The utility division 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, the New York Power Authority, 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. 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. Hannes Reuter, Ramboll managing director, 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 commented 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. 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. 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.”

BPU General Manager David L. 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,” Leathers said,, “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. 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.”