Danish quality & design since 1921
Internally it was known as “the Golden Calf” – the new mobile shunt station installed by waste management and energy company Vestforbrænding in connection with a major remodelling of their district heating network. The solution was developed and produced by Priess A/S, who are experts in technical cabins and stations.
Ordinarily, a remodelling process will mean the facility being out of operation for a total of seven months. This would mean having to produce heat using gas generators until the new permanent solution would be completed and ready. But this is a costly solution for both the district heating network and for the climate.
“This would normally mean extra costs for heating and significantly higher CO2 emissions,” explain Jimmy Warming and Thomas Asbjør, who are both pipe masters at Vestforbrænding. The two professionals had an idea for an alternative solution and so they got in touch with Priess who are specialists in technical cabins.
The result was a mobile shunt station from Priess which is built into a mobile technical cabin. The solution is comprised of a low-temperature shunt in combination with a pressure reduction system, so district heating water can still be delivered from the waste energy plant in Glostrup and supplied directly to heating consumers.
“The savings we made simply just because we did not need to use costly gas to produce heat meant that our investment in the mobile shunt station paid for itself more than five times over in just seven months,” says Jimmy Warming.
He explains that, in addition to savings of more than five million kroner (€672,500), the mobile solution also resulted in greatly reduced CO2 emissions. Emissions have been reduced by thousands of tonnes CO2 because Vestforbrænding is able to use their own “green” heat from the plant at Glostrup.
“There are several advantages to the mobile shunt station,” expands Lars Bech, Product Manager at Priess, going on to say:
“The supply flow temperature out to our consumers can be reduced which means we can make real heat savings in the pipeline network.”
At Vestforbrænding, everyone was generally impressed by the performance of the mobile shunt station.
“Over the seven months, it has produced more than 80,000 megawatts for 5,000 consumers. It is dimensioned for 20 MW but we have increased to 37 MW,” explains Jimmy Warming.
He goes on to explain that the shunt station delivered by Priess was set up in just a week without having to shut down heat production and without needing to use any supplementary heat from gas boilers.
The mobile shunt station was customised and equipped with components as per Vestforbrænding’s preferences. Priess was able to keep the dimensions to a minimum, which made it easy to obtain the various approvals needed under relevant construction site regulations. The plan going forward is to reuse the mobile shunt station in connection with upcoming projects.
“This has been a very constructive process and since it has also developed into something of a golden calf for us, we could hardly have hoped for things to have gone much better,” summarises Jimmy Warming.
“We are proud that we were able to boil such a complex task down into a very simple solution in the form of a plug-and-play shunt station which has truly been able to create value for our client,” says Lars Bech from Priess.
Vestforbrænding was to convert the Lundebjerg Heat Exchanger Station in Skovlunde into a shunt station for 80 MW, equivalent to just under 5,000 homes. During the conversion process, they installed a mobile shunt station as a temporary solution.
Delivery: On site, 1 day
Commissioning: 2 days
