District heating

The District Heating business unit produces and distributes district heating in the Oslo and Akershus region. The facilities in Oslo currently produce more than 1.7 TWh of district heating, enough to provide district heating to about 170,000 homes.

Oslo is entitled as one of the greenest cities in the country, partly thanks to the use of district heating rather than local oil boilers to provide heating to business and residential buildings. Today a building mass equivalent to approximately 700 apartment buildings, 2500 single-family homes and 1200 business buildings are connected to Hafslund’s district heating network.

Norway’s largest producer of district heating

Hafslund Varme is Norway’s largest supplier of district heating and accounts for around 33 per cent of the country’s entire district heating output. Hafslund produces, distributes and sells district heating in the greater Oslo area. The company gives priority to heat purchased from the energy recovery facilities run by the City of Oslo’s Waste-to-Energy Agency. In addition it uses energy produced by its own facilities based on biofuels and heat pumps. Peaks in demand are met through heat generated by electric, LNG (liquid natural gas) and oil-fired boilers. The company’s main production facilities are located at Klemetsrud and Haraldrud in Oslo. The city’s potential for district heating is 2-3 TWh – while the amount currently supplied is 1.7 TWh. Hafslund Varme also operates the district heating facilities serving Oslo Airport Gardermoen and the surrounding commercial district, as well as those serving the centre of Kolbotn and Mastemyr business park.

How district heating works

From waste to heat

A significant share of Oslo’s district heating comes from waste incineration, biofuel facilities and heat pumps that extract heat from sewage. These are resources that would otherwise be lost or considered waste. Today’s investment in district heating saves Oslo from annual GHG emissions corresponding to more than 100,000 cars each driving 15,000 km. The goal is to replace all fossil fuels for peak loads by 2016. This will make a substantial contribution to Oslo’s environment and cut carbon emissions.

Further information

A few of our district heating centrals:

Klemetsrud CHP plant, Oslo

Oslo municipal Waste-to-Energy Agency (EGE) combined heat and power plant with the capacity of 99 MW thermal heat. Hafslund’s district heating central utilize the thermal heat generated by EGE’s waste incinerators and peak-demand electric and oil-fired boilers.

Haraldrud district heating plant, Oslo

produces district heating using the heat generated by the municipal Waste-to-Energy Agency’s waste incinerators (32 MW), recycled biomass incinerators (30 MW) and peak-demand electric, LNG and Norways largest wood pellets boiler (56 MW).

Skøyen district heating plant, Oslo

is linked to one of Oslo’s main sewers. Two heat pumps with a combined capacity of 27 MW extract heat from the liquid sewage flowing through the sewer mains.

Hoff district heating plant, Oslo

is a solely peak-demand unit that uses oil-fired boilers to raise the temperature of water from the heat pumps when necessary. The unit is little used, since heating requirements are met from other sites, primarily those using renewable energy.

Vika district heating plant, Oslo

is a solely peak-demand unit fuelled by electricity and oil. The unit is little used, since heating requirements are met from other sites, primarily those using renewable energy.

Gardermoen district heating plant, Gardermoen

consists of two bioenergy facilities (7 and 6 MW respectively) fuelled by wood chips, with peak-demand boilers fuelled by electricity and oil. Total installed capacity of around 40 MW.