Liepāja starts heating season with new boiler house

The design of the boiler house was provided by local company UPB, which also specialises in the energy sector and has experience in implementing such projects. The boilers were supplied and installed by AGB Serviss. 

The construction of the prison and the provision of heat energy for it started to be discussed ten years ago and a lot has changed - both the heat supply and the prison project, explained Jānis Jansons, Chairman of the Board of "Liepājas enerģija" Ltd.

"We adapted and reached a common solution that this boiler house is located at 40a Alsungas Street, which is in the middle between the prison and the Grīzupes Street boiler house, and at the same time we will be able to provide heating for both the prison and the Zaļā birzs housing estate," said Jansons.

The woodchip boiler house has two boilers with a total capacity of 4 megawatts (MW). Gas can also be used as a backup fuel. 

"If we calculate last year's air temperature[..] this year, using this boiler house, [woodchip use] will be above 90%. It has been very different, we have had crisis years when we couldn't get into the forests, we couldn't get wood chips, the price of wood chips went up. In the energy crisis, wood chips pulled their weight."

In order to ensure against emergency situations, additional power generators are installed in the boiler houses, Māris Reinfelds, Head of Technical Department of Liepāja energija, told about their necessity:

Gunārs Ansiņš (Liepāja Party), Chairman of Liepāja City Council, believes that using wood chips as fuel was the right decision. To continue on this path, a debate with the government will be needed.

"Of course, looking to the future, we see that there is a debate in the European Commission about whether woodchip is green or not, but it is a national resource with which we can replace both Russian gas and other fossil fuels," Ansiņš said.

The new woodchip boiler house in Liepāja - like the previous one - was designed and built by UPB. Dainis Bērziņš, Chairman of the Board of UPB,  also believes that the course started should be continued: "I think that there is a funny tendency in Europe as a whole to think that wood chips are non-green and to try to include them in non-green resources. I think this is wrong, especially in the Latvian context, where energy independence is crucial; woodchip is the resource that we can use successfully."