Regional heat cluster Ulm/Neu-Ulm
The energy supply structure is currently exposed to enormous dynamism. This poses new tasks and growing challenges for energy supply companies. The current energy supply structure must therefore be examined and improved in contiguous regions. Optimised energy use in regional clusters is to be viewed as being an important contribution to greenhouse gas prevention and therefore to climate protection too.
Heat supply companies of Ulm and Neu-Ulm
The two heat supply companies in the Ulm/Neu-Ulm economic region – Stadtwerke Ulm/Neu-Ulm GmbH (SWU) and Fernwärme Ulm GmbH (FUG) – jointly commissioned bifa to bring together, analyse and evaluate the energy potential in a study with the focus on district heating. Valuable project partners were the cities of Ulm and Neu-Ulm and the State of Baden-Württemberg with its properties. In the practical implementation a heat cluster consisting of SWU and FUG was assumed, which leaves out the respective specific company interests and gives priority to a quasi higher interest of a fictitious heat cluster.
As-is state analysis and scenarios
The area under consideration was mapped in energy terms using a geoinformation system with almost 700 sectors and an as-is state analysis was performed. The heat requirements was then projected for 2015, 2020, 2025 and 2030 depending on specific modernisation rates and mapped in scenarios. In a further run the potential was restricted under ecological, technical and economic aspects.
Recommendations for action
As a result, the recommendations for action were left, which apart from consolidating the existing district heating network, describe specific extensions of the district heating network and the development and modification of cooling networks. The project-based proposals are accompanied by an action recommendation, which lists measures to improve the implementation strength of projects by communication of important players. The need for this action recommendation already became apparent as an important factor for the success of the implementation during the evaluation of the expert interviews held for the forming of the scenarios.
Consistent implementation of the recommended actions will decisively strengthen the role of combined heat and power generation in the area under consideration. this leads to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the region, which could be achieved on comparable terms as direct investments in renewable energy. This is also the incentive for the Cities of Ulm and Neu-Ulm, to contribute to the further development of the project approaches through active co-organisation. The mood of optimism felt in the project in the direction of the turn of energy policies will be maintained by both cities with the energy suppliers. Both cities have held special sessions on the complex topics with their committees in order to define the next specific steps.