Stadtwerke Gießen AG (SWG) has been supplying the administrative centre of the town of Pohlheim in Watzenborn-Steinberg with district heating since the beginning of November last year. Yesterday, the heat generation plant, consisting of a combined heat and power unit (CHP) and a gas condensing boiler, was presented by SWG, represented by Reinhard Paul (Technical Director), Matthias Funk (Head of District Heating Department) and Andreas Stengel (District Heating Project Manager) together with Pohlheim's Mayor, Karl-Heinz Schäfer, and Ingo Wallbott from the Pohlheim Building Department. SWG board member Paul was delighted that it had once again been possible to convince a local authority of the practical benefits of SWG's energy service product. Paul left it open as to who would be next.
The administration buildings at Ludwigstrasse 31 and 33 and Kirchstrasse 2 in the Watzenborn-Steinberg district benefit from the environmentally friendly supply of district heating. The Volkshalle and the Kirchstraße kindergarten are also connected to the heat supply. The municipal utilities thus heat a usable area of over 4,600 square metres with a pipeline of 240 metres. Three years ago, the town of Pohlheim had the construction of a central heat supply for the administration centre in Watzenborn-Steinberg investigated as part of a diploma thesis. The most economical solution proved to be the installation of small combined heat and power units in conjunction with the two existing boiler systems in the Volkshalle. SWG designed a project for centralised heat supply using combined heat and power plants. In December 2001, the city of Pohlheim submitted an application for funding for small CHP plants in accordance with the Hessian Energy Act so that planning could begin. In November 2002, the city of Pohlheim commissioned Stadtwerke to implement the local heating network for the administration centre. SWG's concept included the dismantling of all existing and old boiler systems in the respective buildings. SWG installed a condensing boiler with a nominal heat output of 350 kilowatts (kW) in the Volkshalle boiler room. This boiler also uses the heat contained in the exhaust gas by condensing the water vapour. A small CHP unit with a thermal output of 12.5 kW and an electrical output of 4.7 kW was installed as an additional heat generator. The district heating pipe runs from the Volkshalle to the administration building at Ludwigstrasse 31, where a new compact district heating station supplies the building with heating energy. A second pipe route supplies the administration building at Kirchstrasse 2 and the Kirchstrasse kindergarten with heat. The system has been in operation since 6 November 2003. The Pohlheim heating company Helmut Reitz was responsible for the entire conversion. The construction costs for the conversion of the heating centre, including the installation of the boiler and the CHP plant, as well as the local heating network and the installed district heating stations, amounted to around 123 thousand euros (gross).