BEWAG District Heating: Tradition and Future Prospects

From the earliest days of District Heating until today Berlin has been looking forward into the future where new development of District Heating supply are concerned.

The History of District Heating in Berlin

1912
The town hall of Charlottenburg is supplied with heating water from the Charlottenburg power station through a pipeline of 800 meters length.
1926
Apartment buildings and business premises around the Charlottenburg heat and power station are supplied with steam for heating purposes.
1927
In the proximity of the Steglitz heat and power station a hot water pipeline system is for the first time operated as a three-pipe system.
1940
The connected heat load devices supplied by the steam and hot water pipelines already totals 120 Megawatts. The advantages of hot watr piped as compared to the transport of steam become increasingly obvious.
1952
Decision to massively expand District Heating with a three pipe system of hot water mains in the borough of Charlottenburg.
1960
The hot water District Heating System of Charlottenburg already adds up to 230 Megawatts connected load. The pipelines are supplied by heat from new steam extraction condensation turbines installed in the Charlottenburg and Moabit heat and power stations.
1963
The newly erected Rudow heat and power station supplies the more than 15,000 apartments of the entire Gropiusstadt housing complex in the Southeast of Berlin with District Heating.
1969
A connecting pipeline is built to link up the Charlottenburg and Reuter heat and power stations.
1977
After completion of the Lichterfelde heat and power station and the gas turbine-powered Wilmersdorf heat and power station, the present day large-area District Heating System pipeline network comes into being. The hot water supply is furnished by the Charlottenburg, Mobait, Reuter, Steglitz, Lichterfelde, and Wilmersdorf combined heat and power stations. Since then a central District Heating control unit has been monitoring and controlling this integrated network.
1987
The pipeline network of the BEWAG District Heating System has reached a total length of 370 kilometers with a connected load of almost 2,400 Megawatts. More than 13 million square meters of housing and business premises are heated through the District Heating System - this is equivalent to about 185,000 single apartment units.

District Heating Has a Future

One of the biggest District Heating projects of Western Europe is currently under construction in Berlin (West): after completion of the new Reuter West combined heat and power station a large number of additional apartment buildings and industrial premises in the boroughs of Spandau, Charlottenburg, Wedding, and Wilmersdorf can be supplied with District Heating. This calls for construction of connecting pipelines to link the District Heating supply areas with the new areas of District Heating consumption including numerous branch pipelines and supply stations the sum of about DM 600 million will be invested within the next 15 years. The grand total of District Heating suply capacity would be raised to 3,550 Megawatts.

"District Heating Has a Future" thus is much more than a slogan - it is our program for the years and tasks ahead.