Efficient Power from cogeneration
Vantaa Energy’s electricity and heat production is mainly based on combined heat and power generation, in which electricity and heat are produced simultaneously. The heat can be used as either district heat or industrial process heat. Cogeneration uses an average of one-third less energy than when heat and electricity are produced separately in their own processes. Emissions are reduced in proportion. The main fuels in Vantaa Energy’s combined heat and power generation are natural gas and coal.
Martinlaakso power plant
The Martinlaakso power plant produces about two-thirds of the electricity and most of the district heat produced by Vantaa Energy. The power plant consists of three units. Martinlaakso 1 and Martinlaakso 2 both have a steam boiler and a turbine plant. The third unit is a gas turbine plant and a heat recovery steam generator. The overall power production capacity of the power plant is approx. 195 MW and heat output 330 MW.
Efficient Power from cogeneration
In a power plant, consideration of environmental values is best implemented in cogeneration, in which the heat created in the production of Efficient Power is utilised as district heat. Combined heat and power generation utilises natural gas, which is used as the main fuel, and coal, which is used in addition to natural gas, in an effective and economic way. In cogeneration, emissions are reduced by about one-third compared with separate production of electricity and heat.
Did you know this about Efficient Power?
Recovery of heat created in the production of Efficient Power can increase the efficiency rate of the fuel from the normal 40–50 per cent up to 90 per cent. In cogeneration at Martinlaakso, approx. 1,400 GWh of energy is saved each year compared with separate production of electricity and heat. This amount corresponds to the heating needs of about 70,000 detached houses.
The waste-to-heat power plant to be built in Långmossebergen in Vantaa will also operate on the cogeneration principle. The plant will produce approx. 750 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of heat and 500 GWh of electricity a year. The heat production will correspond to about half of Vantaa’s annual heat requirement. The fuel used in the plant will be source-separated mixed waste. The waste will be combusted with grate-fired technology, which is a reliable and the most widely used waste combustion technology in the world. In connection with the plant, there will also be a separate gas turbine plant, the flue gases of which will increase the energy efficiency of the plant.