Utilitas upgraded 30 kilometres of district heating pipeline to ensure reliability

This year, Utilitas built and reconstructed nearly 30 kilometres of heat pipelines, within the framework of which more than 27 million euros in network investments were made. This year, nearly 90 new apartment buildings and commercial and public sector buildings across Estonia will join the district energy network.

This year, Utilitas upgraded nearly 30 kilometres of heating pipelines in seven cities across Estonia. ‘The modernisation of the transmission network is one of the priorities of Utilitas, which ensures high-quality vital service for city residents,’ said Priit Koit, the head of the Utilitas Group. ‘In addition to ensuring  security of supply, an efficient district heating network saves energy and helps to keep the urban air cleaner.’

The biggest project in 2021 was to make the district heating pipeline more efficient in the area of apartment buildings in Väike-Õismäe, Tallinn, where over 15 km of district heating pipeline was replaced with new modern pipes during the last two years.

In connection with the transition of Ülemiste City from local natural gas solutions to district heating, Utilitas installed 1.3 km of district heating and cooling pipelines in the area. As a result, the buildings in the area now have the opportunity to phase out fossil fuels and join environmentally friendly district energy. The Alma Tomingas green building on Sepise Street was the first to use district heating in the city in November.

Utilitas also connected several other buildings in Tallinn that have previously been heated with gas, most notably the Radisson Blu Sky Hotel on Rävala Boulevard, to environmentally friendly district energy.

Emerging business districts and areas of new homes are showing great interest in connecting to district heating. This year, Utilitas extended the Tallinn district heating pipeline to the Vektor development with nearly 200 smart apartments at the intersection of Saku and Kohila streets, to apartment buildings built instead of the buildings built in the 1960s on Türi Street, and to the apartment block of the Kodulahe development. In the Avala business quarter on Veskiposti Street, the existing district heating pipeline was expanded to provide convenient district heating for all commercial buildings in the quarter. Four Lidl grocery stores have joined Utilitas and another will join next year.

The new Espak building materials store in Rapla will join the district heating network this year and an indoor football hall and the Risti Street shopping centre with Prisma, the largest tenant, will join the district heating network at the beginning of the new year. The new district heating customers in Keila are the railway station building, the extension of the primary school, and the four apartment buildings of the Keila Kodu development on Tuula road. In Kärdla, Utilitas connected the newly opened sports centre to the district heating network and a new basic school building is planned to be connected as well.

In addition to district heating, Utilitas is developing a district cooling service in Tallinn, with which new buildings of the Estonian Public Broadcasting and the Central Market and commercial buildings in the port area have shown a desire to join.

Network construction works began in spring and ended in late autumn. Extensive works inevitably lead to inconveniences in both traffic and service use, and Utilitas thanks the residents of the city for their patience.

This year, Utilitas invested a total of over 27 million euros in the construction of pipelines, and over the past eight years, Utilitas has invested nearly 136 million euros in the modernisation of district heating networks.