Energy company Fortum has announced that it is planning to build a new multi-fuel combined heat and power (CHP) plant in Zabrze, Poland. The total value of the investment is approximately €200 million. Commercial operations are expected to begin by the end of 2018, providing district heating to some 70,000 households in Zabrze and Bytom.

The new plant, which will replace the existing coal-fired units in Zabrze and Bytom, will primarily be fuelled by refuse derived fuel (RDF) and coal but will also be designed to handle biomass and a mixture of fuels. The amount of RDF can be up to 50% of the total fuel usage. The residential and industrial waste for RDF is sourced locally.

The plant will have a production capacity of 220MW including 145MW of heat and 75MW of electricity. Annual production is estimated to be approximately 730GWh of heat and 550GWh of electricity.

Ground will break later this year, subject to the local environmental impact assessment process and other negotiations.

‘We want to contribute to the ongoing transformation of the Polish energy sector,’ says Markus Rauramo, executive VP of heat, electricity sales and solutions division at Fortum. ‘Poland is one of the biggest district heating markets in Europe, and we are well established there.’

Fortum has been operating in Poland since 2003. It currently has four CHP units and over 800km of district heating network, which serve in total 360,000 households in the cities of Płock, Wrocław, Częstochowa, Zabrze and Bytom. The
total power generation capacity is currently over 200MW and heat generation capacity over 1,100MW.