District heating in Vestegnen is monitored 24 hours a day
As a supplement it is also possible for VEKS to use the boilers in the 26 local boiler stations. It is necessary to use the boilers during particularly cold spells involving peak loads. Furthermore, the boilers serve as a reserve capacity in the event of breakdown or damage to the system. Fuel applied in these boilers is wooden pellets/coal, natural gas or light oil. However, as mentioned earlier, the boilers are only rarely used. Nevertheless, they are available at all times, whereby the consumers in Vestegnen are guaranteed almost 100 per cent supply reliability, even during a worst-case scenario – total breakdown of the CHP plants supply. VEKS pays for rental and maintenance of the boilers, which are owned by the local district heating company.
Ownership: The consumers receive heat via the local district heating network owned by the local district heating company. VEKS owns the transmission pipes, the pumping stations and the heat exchanger stations.
Close cooperation
The VEKS and CTR (the Metropolitan Copenhagen Heating Transmission Company) pipeline systems are interconnected. As is the case with VEKS, heat generated to CTR is based on surplus heat from CHP and waste incineration. Although being organisationally independent of each other, the two companies have entered into extensive cooperation. This means, among other things, that CTR and VEKS buy and sell large volumes of heat from each other – in order to optimise the overall operation of district heating in the Copenhagen area. If for instance, excessive heat is being generated in one area, this may be utilized in another. CTR and VEKS may also utilize each other’s reserve capacity in the form of the local boilers. If the heat generated to the district heating consumers is too low in Copenhagen, VEKS may supplement with heat from a number of boilers in Vestegnen – and vice versa.