Energy efficiency Made in Adlershof
The modern district heating network of the utility company BTB
“Local cogeneration is our method of choice,” are the words of Frank Mattat, Managing Director of the Berlin utility company BTB, whose customers also include the science location Adlershof. BTB Blockheizkraftwerks‑, Träger- und Betreibergesellschaft mbH Berlin operates one of the most modern district heating networks in Berlin.
At the Adlershof power station on Albert-Einstein-Strasse, the district heating network is supplied with 2,700 hp (2,000 kW) from four gas-fired engine-based combined heat and power (CHP) stations. Besides the two megawatts of heat output, the same systems also deliver an additional 2 MW of electricity. The energy source natural gas is therefore converted into the usable energies heat and electricity with high efficiency.
Compared with conventional generation in separate power and heating stations, cogeneration presents two advantages: energy savings on the one hand and considerably less pollution to the environment on the other. Unlike large-scale industrial cogeneration, however, engine based CHP systems are not only smaller and more efficient, they are also more flexible and can be regulated with greater ease. For even greater improvements to these properties, the power station includes five large heat accumulators filled with 2,000 cubic metres of water as the storage medium. Electricity can therefore be generated also when the demand for heating temporarily drops. The same purpose is served by a photovoltaic system with a peak delivery of 21 kW on the power station’s roof.
BTB, whose innovative technology and products have long adopted unshakable positions side by side with top dog Vattenfall, has its eye on further targets. One of these is to raise the electricity supply for the science city from 30 kV to 110 kV and thus meet the constantly growing Adlershof demand. Specifically in the field of electricity, BTB intends to develop and offer further models that serve to stabilise the grid far beyond the Adlershof borders.
Ever since solar and wind power has been generated on a large scale, this too has become a top subject at BTB. Ideal for this are locally operating, easily regulated CHP systems. “That is our core expertise, and we can guarantee supply stability and reliability,” emphasised Frank Mattat. He went on to explain that this also includes the subject of "Power to Heat", the utilisation of electricity generated from renewable sources or surplus electricity for the supply of heat. “We’ll achieve this in the next three years,” he stated with conviction.
Outside of the science city and its heat grid, which incidentally includes Gropiusstadt and parts of Schöneweide and Köpenick, BTB has also become established as a successful contractor. For instance, housing industries are supplied with electricity and heating generated by district heat stations and CHP systems that BTB operates in the name of its customers. The latest project is “Genossenschaftsstrom”, a cooperative electricity venture that was developed in collaboration with the housing association 1892 and that supplies electricity from photovoltaic installations on the facades of the association’s residential buildings.
By Klaus Oberzig for Adlershof Special