Excursion: Showcase projects for innovative intersectoral use of energy & local heating supply

Mr Marco Burkard, who is responsible for heating technology at municipal utility of Hassfurt, explains the technology used for the district heating network with a variable temperature at the nearby heating centre. The flow temperature of just 40 degrees Celsius is sufficient for the surface heating of the new development area. Small heat pumps are installed in the customers' homes to heat domestic hot water.

The transfer station and heat pump of an apartment block connected to the district heating system. The municipal utility is responsible for maintaining the decentralised technology. The customer only pays a fixed heat price for 10 years.

A central cockpit display is used to control all energy generation and consumption systems in the electricity grid (wind power, PV, gas and hydrogen CHPs, biogas), as well as the distribution grid.

The 1.25 MW electrolyser including water treatment, which converts surplus wind power into hydrogen. This is either fed into the municipal utility's own gas network or converted directly into electricity via a CHP unit.

Mr Häfner explains the concept of the Eltmann local heating supply to the visitors. One current measure to increase efficiency is the replacement of old steel pipes with efficient plastic pipework.

The project "Transfercluster Wärmepumpe & Wärmenetz - Wärmewende intelligent gestalten" (W hoch 3 in short), which organised the excursion, is supported by InES and co-financed by the European Union.

With power-to-gas, flexible electricity tariffs and innovative district heating concepts, the participants of the excursion to the municipal utility of Hassfurt (Bavaria) were able to see first-hand energy future.

Over 20 specialists and managers from the energy industry, other interested decision-makers from the public sector and students accepted the invitation from the Institute of new Energy Systems (InES) at Ingolstadt University of Applied Sciences to attend the excursion "Electrolyser/decarbonisation strategy of the municipal utility of Hassfurt & district heating network Eltmann" on 18.04.24.

Mr Norbert Zösch, Managing Director of Stadtwerke Hassfurt, explained the diverse activities of recent years. The power-to-gas plant - a 1.25 MW electrolyser - produces green hydrogen on site from surplus electricity from the nearby wind farm and PV systems. This is partly fed into the city's natural gas network, supplies the combined heat and power plants of the neighbouring malthouse or is converted back into electricity and heat in the hydrogen combined heat and power plant, according to Mr Zösch. 

The second site visited by the participants was the wooden chips heating plant of the municipality of Eltmann. Mr Hans-Georg Haefner, who as the second mayor of the municipality initiated the project there and continues to support it with heart and soul, also explained the installed wood gasifier system to the visitors, as well as the plans for continuous heat network optimisation and expansion.

The project "Transfer Cluster Heat Pump & Heat Grid - Shaping the Heat Transition Intelligently" (W hoch 3 in short), which organised the excursion, is supported by InES and co-financed by the European Union. It aims to optimise the grid service operation of heat pumps, promote the networking of stakeholders from different areas and the targeted implementation of research results in practice. Further information on the W3 project and future events: https://www.w3-waermewende.de 
The presentation documents of the excursion can be found here: https://www.waerme-wohnen.org/exkursionen/#exk9
 

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