Sweco to design heat pump and electric boiler solutions for Helen at the Eiranranta and Salmisaari plants in Helsinki
Published: Oct 4, 2023
The energy company Helen has major plant investments underway in Eiranranta and Salmisaari in Helsinki. In both investments, Sweco is comprehensively responsible of the implementation phases as an EPCM partner. The plants will be commissioned in 2025, when Helen will also completely give up using coal in its power plants.
As an EPCM partner, Sweco is responsible for all project planning, including architecture, structural engineering, building services and plant design, as well as project management, procurement and site management services.
The Eiranranta heating and cooling plant produces district heat and cooling by utilising waste heat from wastewater that has already flowed through once another, the Katri Vala heating and cooling plant, 4 kilometres north from the upcoming plant. After the recovery of remaining thermal energy, the purified wastewater, which has already been energy-wise utilised twice, is discharged back into the sea.
The Eiranranta heating and cooling plant will be built in an underground cavern. Designing a high-power plant underground is a demanding task, for which Sweco’s designers have accumulated expertise in connection with, for example, the latest expansion of the above mentioned Katri Vala heating and cooling plant and the seasonal energy storage project of Kruunuvuorenranta in Eastern Helsinki.
“In practice, heat pumps provide an endless source of heat and increase self-sufficiency in energy production when we are not dependent on material supplies or weather conditions. It is great to be involved in supporting the resilience of our Helsinki metropolitan area, promoting the green transition and offering consumers peace of mind about the availability of electricity, heating and cooling all year round,” says Riku Maidell, Sustainability Business Director at Sweco.
The Salmisaari power plant area, in turn, will comprise a plant complex consisting of an industrial-scale air-to-water heating and cooling plant and an electric boiler plant. The air-to-water heating and cooling plant produces district heat with a capacity of 14 MW and district cooling with a capacity of 8 MW. The electric boiler plant has a capacity of 100 megawatts.
The Salmisaari plant complex will be implemented in a location that is significant in terms of the cityscape and the history of the Finnish energy industry, and visible in terms of the cityscape. For this reason, Sweco has designed an individual and high-quality architectural concept based on the technical core and the shell wall surrounding it. The red-toned shell wall with the brick shingle surface blends the building into the surrounding building stock and forms an impressive façade for the plant, which also acts as a noise barrier and at the same time controls the strong air flows coming from the heat collectors. In addition, the lighting design of the façade follows the production of the heating and cooling plant through colour-changing LED lights.
“As wind and solar power capacity and other fossil-free electricity production increase, it is great to see that Helen has started to progress towards its carbon neutrality targets by means of both electrified and distributed district heat and cooling production. We are very proud to be able to support and implement these projects with the EPCM project model,” says Tuomas Salminen, Business Unit Director at Sweco.
Further information:
Tuomas Salminen, Business Unit Director, Sweco, tel. +358 40 081 9547, tuomas.salminen@sweco.fi
Heini Jokinen, media contact, Sweco, tel. +358 40 718 0063, heini.jokinen@sweco.fi