Stockholm Getting New CHP Plant

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) -- Finland's Fortum Oyj (HEL:FUM1V) (Espoo, Finland) has announced plans to invest €500 million to construct a new combined heat and power (CHP) plant in the Swedish capital of Stockholm.

The biofuel-powered CHP plant will be located at the existing Vartan plant, with work expected to kick off immediately. The new plant will have a production capacity of 280-megawatts (MW) heat and 130 MW of electricity and will boost the electricity generation capacity of Fortum's Swedish subsidiary, Fortum Värme, by up to a third. The new plant will supply approximately 1,700 gigawatt hours (GWh) of heat and 750 GWh of electricity annually, enough for around 190,000 homes.

The new plant, which will be connected to Stockholm's Southern-central district, heating network, will replace some of the existing heat production at Vartan. Fortum Värme is already the key supplier of heat and electricity to Stockholm. Annually it supplies approximately 8,300 (GWh) of heat, 400 GWh of district cooling and 1,500 GWh of electricity.

Fortum wants to achieve what it calls 'climate neutral generation' in Stockholm. The new plant will reduce the use of fossil-fuels through the burning of forest biomass as fuel. This will push up the use of biofuels at Vartan from 45% today to 70% when the plant is commissioned in 2016. Fortum claimed the investment will allow it to use 'cheaper and more sustainable fuels'.

"District heating has a strong position in Stockholm," explained Anders Egelrud, Managing Director of Fortum Värme. "With the new investment, we will strengthen the energy production of the area. The investment is also in line with Fortum's strategy, where CHP-production plays a central role. CHP technology improves resource efficiency since it enables as much as 90% of the energy content of the fuel to be utilised. The direct and indirect environmental benefits of the new biofuel-based plant will be significant. The global CO2 emissions will decrease by 650,000 tons annually."

Fortum is currently constructing a new waste-fuelled unit at its existing Brista facility, north of Stockholm. This will generate 60 MW of heat and 20 MW of electricity. It is expected to be commissioned later this year.

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