A cost-effective solution: district cooling in central Copenhagen

A former power plant near the Kongens Nytorv square in central Copenhagen houses Denmark’s first large-scale district cooling plant, supplying large commercial buildings such as banks, hotels, office buildings and many other companies, including Denmark’s biggest media company, with cost-effective, environmentally friendly cooling.

According to Jan Don Høgh, District cooling manager at Copenhagen Energy Ltd., “Our new district cooling resource is produced by free cooling from the sea, surplus steam and waste heat from incineration plants as sources. The idea behind this is to utilize resources that otherwise would be wasted. According to our calculations, the CO2 emissions are reduced by approximately 67% compared to traditional cooling. A centralized cooling facility like ours increases efficiency 5-10 times compared to localized electrically driven cooling solutions. This means that electricity costs are cut by up to 80%”.

Energy efficiency was a major consideration in the design of Copenhagen’s new district cooling project.

Large numbers of VLT® drives are employed to control the pumps and compressors in the district cooling plant and contribute to reducing CO2 emissions by more than 3000 t per year.