Upgrading

smart meters in Herning

Varme Herning has teamed up with Herning Vand. Verdo will pay a fee to use Herning Vand’s network to transport data from smart heating meters. The agreement will help both utilities keep costs down. Herning Varme can thereby use existing networks, while helping private customers to easily have their meters read remotely.

Many of the existing heating meters in Herning and the surrounding area can already be read remotely, but since the current system is being replaced, it is necessary to replace or upgrade the existing meters.

The project will run well into 2023, and be done in collaboration with Kamstrup. Verdo and Herning Vand will collaborate more closely on digitalisation and sustainability in the local area in the future, to improve the customer experience and make life easier for customers using digital solutions.

Randers companies gain huge CO2 benefit

While the media often focuses on the roll-out of district heating to private customers, Verdo launched a major project in the Haslund and Sdr. Borup commercial areas south of Randers in 2022. By replacing natural gas with district heating, several companies are seeing huge CO2 and cost reductions.

In order to realise the project, the motorway was crossed twice using horizontal directional drilling. This made it possible to run 100 metres of district heating pipeline under the motorway.

One of the companies that decided to replace natural gas with district heating is Saint-Gobain/Brødrene Dahl, which has a nationwide distribution centre on Alsvej. The company has achieved annual savings of 360 tonnes of CO2 and several hundred thousand kroner, and has a goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 70 per cent by 2030. The dramatic savings made it an easy decision notes Lasse Halliday, the company’s Logistics Director.

“It was an obvious thing to do. The investment will be quickly recovered, and the conversion makes a major contribution to achieving our 2030 goals,” explains Lasse Halliday, referring to the company’s goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 70 per cent by 2030.

Lasse Halliday sees the district heating roll-out as a classic example of how companies can help each other in the green transition.

“This is the way we need to go, and we can do it together in a way that works. I’m therefore very pleased that the other companies out here helped increase demand, and that Verdo was ready to act on it,” says Lasse Halliday.

Karsten Randrup, District Heating Manager at Verdo, reports that district heating was rolled out to the first commercial customers in Haslund and Sdr. Borup in 2022, with a combined floor space of approx. 70,000 square metres.

Up to 150,000 square metres is expected to be converted in the area during 2023. The total CO2 savings will then amount to around 1,900 tonnes annually.

“We are seeing huge interest from companies in the area. They want to get away from fossil energy, and they can save money at the same time, so the conversions in Haslund and Sdr. Borup will really make a difference,” says Karsten Randrup.

Online dialogue meetings offer electricity market update

At Verdo, we constantly strive to make it easy to be a customer, and it was particularly demanding to fulfil this goal as a utility company during the energy crisis.

When the energy crisis hit, interest in the electricity market and prices exploded. People were suddenly far more aware of their electricity consumption. We found that many – private consumers and companies alike – were unsure of their options and about the approaching winter.

We decide to do something about this, and began holding separate online dialogue meetings in October 2022 for private consumers and for businesses. The meetings were not just for our own customers, but for any utility customers around Denmark who were interested.

The dialogue meeting for private consumers was held via Facebook, and hosted by Mikkel Pugholm Horvath, Customer Manager, and Henrik Bach Pedersen, Sales and Customer Manager for Elsalg. They answered the questions that were typically being raised with employees in customer service. They also talked about the reasons for the sharp price increases, walked through a typical electricity bill and explained the various items and terms, and informed people about the option of freezing parts of their electricity bill.

The dialogue meeting for businesses was held in close collaboration with Centrica Energy Trading. We reported on trends in the electricity market and expectations looking ahead. We also reviewed the possible actions companies could take, purchasing strategy, hedging and security.

Both dialogue meeting forums sought to reduce uncertainty among utility customers.

What do you when you have to keep your ice arena cold, despite record electricity prices?

For the Herning Blue Fox ice hockey club, the answer was simple. They ordered a health check of the club’s energy consumption – and this turned out to be a good idea.

Through dialogue and sparring, Herning Blue Fox and Verdo jointly identified several parameters where the club could save markedly on energy consumption. The club also signed a ‘Match’ agreement with Verdo. The Match agreement locks 50 per cent of the club’s energy consumption at a fixed market price, while the other half is tied to the spot price –i.e. a variable price that follows the market. This ensures a competitive electricity price for Herning Blue Fox whether the market goes up or down. In the market that unfolded in 2022, it turned out to be a very good decision to lock in half of consumption at a fixed price.

“We have received a lot of good input from Verdo. About how we can lower our energy consumption and ensure the best prices,” says Torben Skovsgaard, CEO of Herning Blue Fox.

The Match agreement includes green power – as the CEO is quick to point out. The club has a strong focus on the green transition and reducing its climate footprint.

Verdo already sponsors the ice hockey club, and now also supplies the club’s green electricity.