By Pernille Salomonsen, Energy and Development Consultant, Albertslund Municipality
For district heating (DH) utilities planning a transition to lower temperatures, Albertslund offers a broader lesson: the benefits extend well beyond reducing heat loss. The transition can also be used to redesign the network for better day-to-day operation.
Figure 1. Over several years, Albertslund utility has lowered flow temperatures in large parts of the network and installed around 20 local shunt and substation solutions.
More than lower temperatures Low-temperature DH is often presented as an efficiency measure. When the water in the network does not have to be as hot, it loses less heat on the way to the consumer. Lower temperatures can also improve the heat pump performance and make it easier to integrate low-grade sources such as industrial surplus heat, supermarket refrigeration, data centres, wastewater, and geothermal energy. Those benefits have been an important part of the transition at Albertslund Utility. Over several years, the utility has lowered flow temperatures in large parts of the network and installed around 20 local shunt and substation solutions. The units
By combining lower temperatures with smaller hydraulic zones, local shunt and booster units, and systematic work in customer installations, Albertslund Utility has created a DH network that is easier to control, maintain, and troubleshoot, with fewer disturbances for consumers. The case is relevant far beyond Denmark because many utilities face the same question: how can an existing DH network be prepared for new heat sources and lower temperatures without compromising security of supply? Albertslund's answer is practical rather than prescriptive: start with the buildings and the data, divide the network into manageable steps, and treat low-temperature operation as an operational program, not only as a technical target.
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