Uldum Varmeværk - History & key figures

The city of Uldum is situated 17 km north of Vejle and 17 km west of Horsens in the municipality of Hedensted. Uldum is probably best known for its Folk High Scool, the oldest in Denmark, and also the city's landmarks, Uldum Mill and the EU bird sanctuary Uldum Fen, which is quite unique, as it is part of Denmark's largest contiguous fens area.

The power plant in Uldum, Uldum Heat, is also known outside of Denmark: we've had visits from 31 countries, see the guest list here...

With bike dealer Jorgen Christiansen and ironmonger Verner Larsen in the lead, a circle of Uldum citizen on 31 July 1961 formed a society with limited liability: Uldum Varmeværk AMBA. This means that owners of its affiliated properties are members of the plant, and thus jointly own it. The economic responsibility is limited to the amount members pay for their connection to the plant, currently approx. DKK 23,000 for a "standard sized house". An elected board, through the personnel hired by the board, is responsible for the operation of the plant. 
At the time of start-up, the Uldum Varmeværk society counted approx. 100 members.

On November 15th, 1961 the oil boiler of a new heating plant in Vesterled was started for the first time (the building is now used for residential purposes)

In 1985, one of Denmark's first wood-chip fired heating plants was built at Industrisvinget 9, approx. 800 m north of the old station, which was then closed. At that time, approx. 260 consumers were connected. 
In 1990, a 25 m2 flue gas cooling plant for better fuel utilization and improved flue gas cleaning was added. 
In 1996, a 144 m2 combined garage, warehouse and workshop was added. 
In 2000, the plant was expanded with an additional 4,335 m2 of space. The total site area is now 8,333 m2. 
In 2006, a new 396 m2 building with a 4.5 MW wood-chip fired unit was added. The existing unit is kept as a back-up unit. The total m2 of plant buildings is now 853 m2. 
In 2007, two oil reserve boilers totaling 3.8 MW were replaced with a new 10 MW boiler due to the age and size of the old boilers.

Key figures 2010 
(Consumption figures are from year 01/04/2009 to 03/31/2010)

Boilers: 
1 pc. KEM / Danstoker wood chip boiler 4.5 MW (incl. Rubow recycling unit of 1 MW) 
1 pc. Justsen/Danstoker wood chip boiler 2,5 MW incl. recycling unit, the bolier is supplied by Tjæreborg Industri A/S
1 pc. Danstoker oil boiler 10 MW

Annual production: 
Heat sold to consumers: 13,989 MWh 
Ash / slag wetted with tap water (water content approx. 45% of total weight): total approx. 92 tonnes

Annual Consumption: 
Wood chips: 20,112 cubic meters with a total weight of 5,772 tonnes. (Equivalent to approx. 1,500,000 liters of oil). 
Heating oil (for peak load and repair of wood-chip boiler): 19,810 liters

The wood chips come mainly from the thinning of Danish conifer plantations, and is provided by HedeDanmark in approx. 500 containers. The containers are transported on lorries with two containers on each. 
Wood-chip moisture content by weight is between 35 and 60%. The weather conditions under which the chipping is done plays a lot into the moisture content. In past years, the average moisture content has been 42,7%. 
Efforts have been made to reduce the moisture content through the felling of the trees some months prior to the chipping. The reason for this being that the moisture content of wood-chips from 8-9 m tall recently felled whole spruce trees is about 50%.

Consumer Data: 
Connected Consumers :.........................................  454 
Connected in Heating Plan district heating area:......  95 % 
Connected building area:........................................  170,556 m² 
Main Leads: ........................................................... 10,5 km 
Laterals: ...............................................................  8,2 km 
Wiring total: .......................................................... 18,7 km

(Piping length is twice the indicated as the grid consists of both flow and return pipe)

Annual heating costs in 2009-2010 for a 130 m2 house connected to the Uldum Heating Plant: 
Fixed fee: 130 m² x kr 21.88 kr ............................  DKK 2844.40 
Metering Tax .........................................................  DKK 812.50 
Consumption: 18.1 MWh x kr 456.50 ....................  DKK 8,262.65 
Total incl. 25% VAT................................................  DKK 11,919.55 

According to a recent study of prices in 2009 done by the Danish District Heating Association, the average price for Danish plants is DKK 14,785.00 incl. VAT.