Urban Energy Transition and Heating of Apartment Buildings

The on-going energy shift includes major changes in heating of buildings. As a modern solution in cities, bigger apartment buildings are nowadays choosing ground source heat pumps for heating. The first experiences of these heatings from Helsinki, Finland report considerable high needs of electrical energy and demand. The local electricity distribution system is an enabler of the energy transition. For the needs of network planning and future scenarios, new profiles of these apartment buildings having ground source heat pumps are presented. They were applied to model the future network loadings in various points of the distribution network. In Helsinki city, the studies presented a positive outcome that this urban energy transition is possible without any major challenges in the local distribution network. This can support the customers to proceed in their energy shift simultaneously lowering the carbon footprint of the whole city.