Municipal Network for Energy Efficiency

Examples and Useful Lessons Learned

The following projects are examples of what municipalities can do to improve energy efficiency in buildings and district heating systems. The projects described below were implemented in ten Hungarian cities and were financed either by the cities themselves or by third party investors. Many of these projects were developed and designed through donor assistance, particularly the Netherlands Joint Implementation Program.
As the table shows, many of these efforts can be enormously cost-effective, particularly fuel switching projects that also reduce inefficiencies in electric and heat generation from old coal and oil sources. Most of these projects switched to natural gas, which also provided substantial environmental benefits.
More information on these projects, including carbon reduction figures, can be obtained from Mr. Eppe Luken or Angela Morin.

• Balatonfured
• Budapest University Project
• Budapest 22nd District
• Dombovar
• Emőd
• Mohacs
• Papa
• Paszto
• Sarospatak
• Tata
• Vac

 Summary of Projects

1. Balatonfured

A city of 13,500, Balatonfured is located on the northern part of Lake Balaton and is a tourism center. The local government has not been active in the field of energy efficiency, but when external help has been provided - such as aid programs - the city has implemented recommended measures. The heating systems of six municipal institutions were converted from light fuel oil to natural gas. In some of the institutions thermostatic valves were installed.

2. Budapest University Project

Budapest University is one of the largest institutions of higher learning in Hungary. Burdened by higher energy costs, the University has welcomed several energy efficiency initiatives.

Today, the heat demand of the University is met by imported district heat and steam generation. In the field of heating, the University has contracted with an energy service company (ESCO) to implement a computer based energy management system for the buildings.This should be a good start to reduce heat demand. On the electric side, the University buys 100% of its electricity at medium-high voltage from the local distribution company. Typical categories of electrical end-use equipment are:

• in-door lighting, lecture rooms;
• in-door lighting, other educational rooms;
• in-door lighting, offices, shops, etc;· out-door lighting;
• HVAC equipment (mainly ventilation);
• office appliances (computers, copiers, etc.);
• laboratory equipment (experimental apparatus, instruments, etc.);
• maintenance and educational shops (welding machines, lathes, etc.);
• kitchen and laundry.

Probably the highest end-use demand is in-door lighting, so there are numerous opportunities for more efficient lighting. The electricity consumption at the University can be described as follows: maximum power demand at all University facilities is 3.7 MW (daily peak measured at a working day in November). The average power consumption of the University is estimated to be 10-12 GWh/year.

Small-scale cogeneration Combined Heat and Power (CHP) project: The CHP project involved the installation of a small-scale, gas-fired cogeneration plant that will provide part of the electricity and heat supply of the University. The CHP system is be based on a natural gas fired engine that produces electricity and heat. The following technical data apply to this system:

• Type: Jenbacher JMS 316 GS-N.LC
• Electric capacity: 736 kW
• Heat capacity: 947 kW
• Gas demand: 199 Nm3/h

The plant includes a flue gas heat recovery boiler and a heat recovery system utilizing waste heat of jacket cooling, oil cooling, and cooling of the turbocharger. All the heat recovery systems produce 90/70o C hot water. When operated, the CHP plant replaces purchased electricity generated by the fossil-fired plants of the national electric system. Each kWh not produced in the power plants results in the saving of 1.11 kg CO2. Also the heat supply from the district heating system is be replaced by the CHP plant. Surplus electricity can be exported to the utility grid, while surplus heat is exported to the network of FOT?V, the Budapest district heating company. The CHP installation is operated on a commercial basis by a Joint-Venture of the Dutch and Hungarian Utilities.

3. Budapest 22ND District

Sixteen percent of the 18,635 homes in this Budapest district are connected to the district heating system, and natural gas is available in 54% of the homes. Unemployment is relatively low compared to the national average because of the large number of small industries within the district.

Energy matters are handled by the energy manager who works within the city maintenance department and reports directly to the city director. The intention of the local government was to replace the obsolete heating equipment, introduce natural gas firing and reduce the environmental impacts caused by oil and coal. Also one of the main goals was to reduce the fuel costs to create an environment for better space heating control. The interventions were implemented by the local government itself with the participation of local entrepreneurs. As the introductory table shows, it is saving the city a great deal of money.

4. Dombovar

Dombovar is a city of 22,000. The municipal heating company took the last subsidies available in 1989-90 to convert the district heating system from light fuel oil to heavy fuel oil, which enabled them to keep the district heating tariffs low.The district heating system supplies 1,880 homes (271,480 m3), 1,193 of which pay a lump sum tariff. The others pay according to their actual consumption. As a result of some audits funded through the Dutch-Hungarian Community Advice programme, the heating company and consumers installed thermostatic radiator valves in each apartment. This programme has been going on since 1994 and financed from the district heating company's own resources. The valves provide a tool of individual control, which if coupled with metering-based accounting, will save considerable energy and money.

In another project, the heating company installed two thermostatic valves at least in each south facing room of all flats of the district heated residential buildings. In this project three selected buildings were monitored: two residential buildings and the mayor’s office. The thermostatic valves give the consumers the possibility:

• to control their own space heating system within a certain range;
• to reduce the heat consumption because of the heat gain from the sunshine (statistically it is possible to utilize the sunshine on 91 days from the 183 day long heating season);
• to replace the obsolete, leaking uncontrollable radiator valves.

The whole project depends on awareness raising, as the installation of thermostatic valves alone does not save energy automatically. The consumer had to adjust the valves so that savings could be achieved. That is one reason why different thermostatic valve projects in Hungary produced savings from 2 to 40% (the better the awareness raising component, the better the results).

The savings achieved in this particular case are partly the effect of the investment and partly caused by the increase of awareness. To "measure" the awareness effect, it could be compared with other energy data. Increased energy awareness should - in theory - be reflected in other energy consumption data of the same flats as well (e.g. electricity). To determine this effect accurately, however, is very difficult. This is because many other related effects play a role as well in the actual behavior of customers. Even if the awareness increased, people might not be able to reduce their consumption. They might not have the knowledge on how to do it, nor the tools (e.g. separate switches for the individual lights). The effect is rather difficult to monitor, since we should have the power bills of the same apartments over numerous years, and then see the bills after the valves were installed (after the awareness raising activities). These figures should then be adjusted for several circumstances of all the individual families (e.g. how many people lived there at the time the bill was issued, do the same people still live there etc.). It is very difficult to create a scientifically justified procedure to determine the effects of awareness raising in this project.

5. Emőd

Emőd is a small city of some 6,000 inhabitants, in northeast Hungary. The local government is responsible for the energy supply of the public buildings and operation of the district heating system. All energy related tasks of the local governments are the responsibility of the Public Caretaking Company (K?zs?ggondnoks?g). This company is an independent legal entity, supervised by the Board of Representatives through the Mayor. The heating project described below was completely the initiative of the local government.

The district heating modernization projects evidently affects the district heated buildings only. There used to be two DH systems in Emőd. Large system: The so-called "large system" heats the municipality building, post office, a pharmacy and 42 homes. Both the design and the technical status of the homes are rather poor from an energy consumption aspect. The internal height of the flats is too high, and the thermal insulation is often missing between the walls and the internal wooden panels. All buildings are equipped with chimneys, which enables the introduction of individual heating.

• Boilers: Four light fuel oil fired Komfort III type (Hungarian made) hot water boilers with 325 kW capacity each.
• Burners: ANYO-50 GK type burner with two-stage control.
• Circulation pumps: Two WILO P 100/160 R type pumps with constant mass flow-rate.
• Control system:TERMOREG-3 controller (capable of weather-compensated control) -- out of order.

Distribution system: Indirect system (the water from the boiler circulates in the radiators), with steel pipes running underground in concrete conduit.

Small system: A second, so-called "small system" supplies a healthcare complex incorporating a surgery, and two doctors' homes.

• Boilers: Three light fuel oil fired MEGAMORV 100 type hot water boilers with 81.5 kW unit capacity. (A very poor Hungarian design, not very widespread)
• Burner: PGN-15 type Hungarian burners with on-off control. The system is practically uncontrolled (manual control if at all).

Project activities:

1. Eliminating the old, light fuel, oil-based, so-called "large" district heating system, replacing it with individual gas heating;
2. Replacing the oil-fired boiler of the small DH system with modern gas fired one, using the opportunity that the city has lately been connected to the national gas distribution system. In the course of the saving measures the old, light fuel oil based, so-called "large" district heating system, based on rather inefficient Hungarian Komfort boilers, were replaced by individual gas heating. The private flats are now equipped with wall-hang boilers of different types and makes (SC18, SC24, Vaillant, Leaser). The Mayor's office was equipped with two ALUSUPER 50 boilers, while the post office received one SC24 wall-hung boiler. The pharmacy was also equipped with one SC24 wall-hung boiler. In the small-system, the surgery will get one THERMOT?KA 60 boiler.

6. Mohacs

Mohacs is a medium size city of 20,457 inhabitants situated on the Southern part of Hungary, on the bank of River Danube. Key priorities for the city, which owns the district heating company, include:

• Modernisation of the public lighting network;
• Increasing of the natural-gas supply network in Mohacs; and
• Modernisation of the DH system both on the supply and demand sides.

The district heating system supplies heat to different institutions in the city and to 2,000 apartments. The installed heat production capacity is 24 MW. There are 30 heating substations in the system. The district heating plant also provides hot water for the consumers.

There are cost allocators installed in 80% of the apartments, therefore the consumers pay their bill on the basis of their real heat consumption, although they cannot control their consumption without thermostatic valves. The future plans of the district heating company include the extension of the metering-based invoicing to all the 2,015 customers and continuation of the installation of cost allocators and thermostatic valves for residential consumers.

Heat recovery in the district heating plant : Two Swedish-made condensing heat recovery units were installed in the common flue gas duct of the three boilers. The unit capacity of the units is 4.5 MW. These heat exchangers recover both the latent and sensible heat of the exit flue gas. The heat is used to raise the temperature of the return primary water of the main heat distribution system. The heat recovery units are equipped with Multical II heat meters, connected to the water side. The heat meters are connected to a monitoring computer. The condensate from the flue gas is regularly sampled through a sample cooler and discharged to the city sewage system.

This project shows that this is an interesting project in terms of savings and cost effectiveness. The project was developed and financed by the district heating company and an Austrian consultant. The installation was also done by the district heating company. The project was implemented by a sort of third party financing, since the 70% of the project costs were paid for in cash, the 30% is paid back from the savings achieved. In many cases, the Central European cities are not able to arrange the money (e.g. problems with guarantees, long-term contracting, splitting of savings, up-front payment of 70%).

7. Papa

Papa, a city of 34,500 inhabitants, is situated in the Trans-Danubian region. The main priorities of the municipality include improvement of the public lighting system, sewage system, gas distribution system, and the construction of new schools.

Public lighting revamp programme: There used to be mercury vapor lamps installed in the 38 affected streets and squares of the city. These were replaced by either compact fluorescent lights or by high-pressure sodium lamps. The city was responsible for this public lighting project. The actual implementation of the job was done by the local power distribution company. The installation was made by a Hungarian enterprise. The installed equipment is owned by ?D?SZ, the local power distributor.

8. Paszto

Paszto has some 12,000 inhabitants and used to be the administrative centre of the region. Therefore several institutions of regional competency, such as the hospital, the district attorney's office, are located here. Two villages also belong to the Paszto municipality. The major employment opportunities are a dairy and a factory manufacturing luminaries and lighting accessories. Natural gas is the primary fuel in the city.

Fuel switching project: In the kitchen of the G?rdonyi G?za school within the city they had two oil stoves which were replaced by a C18 type wall-hung boiler. In addition, coal-fired boilers were be replaced by one TERMOT?KA 35 type gas-fired hot water boiler. In two kindergartens there used to be oils stoves for heating. The kitchen in one of them has an LPG-fired cooker unit. The oil stoves were replaced by five F?GTHERM type (Hungarian) gas-fired wall-hung boilers.

Paszto Public Lighting Retrofit: Originally incandescent bulbs, fluorescent tubes and mercury vapor lamps used to be installed in the streets of the city. These were replaced by the either compact fluorescent lights or high-pressure sodium lamps. The new lamps were installed in two phases, the first by ?M?SZ the local power distribution company, the second by ENERGOVILL Rt. a Hungarian entreprise. The new equipment is owned by ?M?SZ. The project was financed by an ESCO (Credilux) specialised on street lighting projects in a third-party financing scheme. The local government pays Credilux back from the cost savings from the project.

9. Sarospatak

Sarospatak is situated on the River Bodrog and is another tourist center. About 817 apartments and several public buildings are served by the district heating network, which is fuelled by oil and wood chips. Due to the dramatic increase in oil prices, the city has switched temporarily to LPG and will later, when it becomes available, switch to natural gas. Originally the following boilers were installed in the three district heating systems of the city:

Boiler House 1

• 2 pc SLT 3 type boilers (Hungarian), PGN 280 type oil burner
• 1 pc P 1000 type boiler, PGN 180 type oil burner (H)
• 1 pc DANSTOKER woodchip fired boiler

Boiler House 2

• 2 pc OPTICAL 500 boilers ANYO 80 type oil burner
• 1 pc L?NG-YGNIS type Hungarian made boiler PGN 180 type oil burner

Boiler House 3

• 2 pc KOMFORT 3 type boilers ANYO 50 type oil burner
• 1 pc KOMFORT 2 type boiler ANYO 20 type oil burner

In the first boiler house, the two SLT boilers were equipped with SBG 275 gas burners. LPG is stored in a 63 m3 underground storage tank, fitted with a 500 kg/h capacity evaporator. The fuel conversion necessitated the internal lining of the chimneys.

The project was financed by Primag?z (Dutch supplier of LPG) under the condition that the plant buys its fuel from them for 3 years. The owner of the equipment is partly the municipality (burners) and partly Primag?z (storage tank and evaporator). The installation has been done by a Hungarian company as the sub-contractor of Primag?z. The base load is met by the woodchip-fired boiler while the gas boilers are covering the peak demands.

• In the Gelka boiler house, the ANYO 80 type oil burners of the two OPTICAL type boilers were replaced by ABG 80 type gas burners.
• In the L?NG-YGNIS type boiler, the PGN 180 type oil burner was replaced by SBG 200 type gas burner.
• In the Ady boiler house, two KOMFORT 3 type boilers with ANYO 50 oil burners and one KOMFORT 2 type boiler with ANYO 20 oil burner have been replaced by seven F?G WESTALE type 120 kW gas boilers.

10. Tata

Tata is situated 70 km from Budapest on the northern part of the Transdanubian Region. Out of the 9,100 apartments in the city, 1,840 are owned by the local government and about 2,000 are connected to the local district heating schemes.

Fuel conversion and space heating retrofit : The following measures were taken in the different local government owned public buildings: F?rdo utcai kindergarten. One VNYIISZTO type coal-fired boiler replaced by two wall-hung gas-fired boilers; in addition, two H?V?Z V 4.2 and one QADRIGA type hot water generators were installed. The project included replacement of the cast-iron radiators to steel flat radiators. The project was financed by the local government.

• J?zmin ?ti primary school. Two CARBO type coal-fired boilers replaced by two THERMO ?V type and one C24 type gas-fired boilers. The project was financed by the local government.
• Bl?thy Ott? apprentice training facility. Two KOMFORT type fuel-oil fired boilers replaced by five HOTERM 116 SE type boilers. The project was financed by the Environmental Protection Fund.
• Hospital, out-patient ward. Three Thermopress 242 type fuel-oil fired boilers replaced by two F?G VESTALE AF 105 type gas fired boilers. The project was financed by the Polyclinic itself.
• Hospital maternity ward. Three SKO-20 type fuel-oil fired boilers replaced by five F?G VESTALE AF 105 type gas fired boilers. The project was financed by the local government.

Public lighting retrofit project: Obsolete incandescent lamps, fluorescent tube lamps and mercury vapour lamps were replaced by high-pressure sodium lamps. The project was financed by the local government. The installation was made by "ECONO-SINUS Kft" and "RAVILL Kereskedelmi V?llalat". The new equipment is owned by ?D?SZ, the local power distributor company.

11. Vac

Just north of Budapest, Vac is a city of 35,400 inhabitants and is the location of the region’s largest manufacturer of CFL’s - General Electric - TUNGSRAM Rt. The local government is responsible for the energy supply of the public buildings. The energy related tasks of the local governments are the responsibility of the GAMESZ, the local public caretaking company and the independent institutes. GAMESZ is an independent legal entity, supervised by the Board of Representatives through the Mayor, they are responsible for the elementary schools.

The local government decided to improve the space heating control in their public buildings and installed 954 thermostatic valves in sixteen institutes all over Vac. The installed vandal-proof thermostatic radiator valves are Italian-made JACOMINI types at the size of 1/2" and 3/4". The project was financed by the local government and implemented by a local space heating installation entrepreneur.

Useful Lessons: Heating control using thermostatic valves in itself does not reduce energy consumption. They mainly improve the indoor climate control and living comfort. It is the individual energy awareness that contributes to reduced energy consumption. Awareness itself, however is not enough to save energy, as methods and tools must also be provided. In general increased awareness often leads to 5-10% or even more energy savings (really switching off the lights when not needed, not leaving the windows open, reduce the use of (warm) running water etc).

The caution was well justified by the achieved savings. It is apparent from the above figures that in many institutions energy use increased after the project implementation. This can easily happen if - in order to allow for adjustment range - the supply temperature of the secondary system is increased, and the thermostatic valves are set to the highest temperature (out of negligence, they have no limiter device, or they are vandalised). In other instances real savings seem to have been achieved. The savings range between -30 and 50%.