District heating connections for commercial customers can be a costly affair. Connection costs are typically calculated based on the total area of the business premises, resulting in high expenses.
Even though some buildings, such as hardware stores, warehouses, football stadiums, and factories with large cold storage facilities, do not require much heating, they are charged the same rates per square meter.
This discourages businesses from connecting to district heating and benefiting from its energy efficiency and environmental friendliness.
Frese's dynamic flow limiter, ALPHA, addresses this challenge.
By installing the valve at the entrance of the business, we can ensure that the flow will not exceed the predetermined level set at the connection. Even if changes are made to the company's heating system or additional units are connected, ALPHA ensures that the designed flow is not exceeded.
The investment is minimal, often less than one week’s salary for an individual, even for large companies with extensive built-up areas.
If the company needs change later, whether that be increased or decreased, the district heating plant can easily adjust the dynamic flow limiter by replacing the flow cartridges. This allows for the calculation of a new connection fee and ensures that the system's capacity remains sufficient.
Ringsted District Heating Plant has already implemented the solution successfully.
Project Manager at Ringsted Forsyning A/S, Martin Overbjerg, has assisted several commercial customers in connecting to the district heating network using this method.
Using a simple calculation based on the customer's heat demand and the required cooling, the supply volume can be easily determined, and the ALPHA valve can be accurately sized.
Subsequently, a fictional building area is calculated based on the connection capacity. This calculated area is used for the calculation of the connection fee as well as the annual capacity contribution. Consequently, there is no need to modify the district heating plant's general provisions for connection costs and capacity contributions.
With ALPHA, both the district heating plant and the commercial customer gain significant advantages:
