Stadtwerke Gießen has modernised and expanded the heating centre on the premises of Lilly Pharma in Gießen-Wieseck. SWG and the local pharmaceutical company presented the new system today (30 August). A further combined heat and power plant (CHP) and two new boiler systems were installed. A total of three CHP units now provide environmentally friendly district heating in the "Marburger Straße West" and Reichelsberg development areas and on the Lilly premises.
CHP units are highly efficient, as they generate electricity and heat simultaneously according to the principle of combined heat and power generation. The system used thus saves 40 per cent carbon dioxide compared to conventional heating plants. In the case of the new combined heat and power plant at Lilly, this corresponds to a saving of around 1,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide compared to conventional heat generation.
The electricity generated is fed directly into the grid. The new CHP plant has an installed electrical output of 155 kilowatts. The total electrical output of all CHP units on site is now 465 kilowatts. The installed thermal output of the new CHP plant is now around five megawatts.
"The demand for heat is increasing both at Lilly-Pharma, which is continuously expanding, and in the new housing estates. More and more houses want to be connected. An expansion was now necessary," explains Reinhard Paul, Technical Director of Stadtwerke Gießen. Over 150 houses in the "Marburger Str. West" development area are already supplied with heat from the CHP plant via a 4-kilometre-long network of pipes.
In addition to installing the new CHP plant, Stadtwerke also dismantled two old Lilly boiler systems. Instead, two new heat generators were installed in the new, centrally located CHP plant. The boiler for the medium load is equipped with the latest gas condensing technology. This means that the heat contained in the exhaust gas can also be utilised. This increases the efficiency of the system by a further 10 per cent. The second oil-based boiler is used for redundancy in order to provide sufficient heat for the customers at all times.
A reliable supply of heat is guaranteed in any case. This is because the district heating network is not only supplied from the Lilly site, but also from four other locations in the Reichelsberg, Hölderlinweg and Friedrich-Ebert-Schule areas, to which the heating network extends. "This guarantees district heating customers maximum security of supply," says SWG project manager Jens Hanig.
Stadtwerke Gießen has been working with Lilly since 2004. "The cooperation is excellent," says Matthias Funk, Head of the "Heat Supply" department at Stadtwerke Gießen. And Jürgen Geißler, Team Leader Service Security at Lilly, adds: "We have a competent and experienced partner at our side in Stadtwerke. Our heat supply is guaranteed and we are also doing something for the environment."