In a new contract, energy consultancy FVB will be responsible for all district heating design in the swiftly growing Barkarbystaden area near Stockholm, including undertaking work to move the current transit line.

Barkarbystaden – a former airport near Stockholm– is today the largest expansion area surrounding the Swedish capital, and is being converted into a modern district. Located in Jarfalla Municipality, northwest of Stockholm, the new district has already been the site of major expansion for a few years now, with a total of 18,000 new homes, 140 neighbourhoods, and 10,000 new workplaces planned for Barkarbystaden by 2030. The majority of those properties will have district heating.

“On behalf of E.ON Varme, we are designing all district heating in the area. This involves both main lines and service lines. In total, this will be about 3.5 km of lines with a heat output requirement of 36 MW,” said Oskar Osterberg, consultant at FVB. 

“Finding space for all the infrastructure is a challenge”

Previously a military and regional airport, such activities ceased at Barkarbystaden in 2010 after nearly 100 years of aviation operations. Resultantly, there was hardly any existing infrastructure at the site, except for a transit line for district heating. As an entirely new district is now being built, there are many lines and large pipes that will share space in the ground – district heating, water and sewage, power lines, fibre networks, and garbage collection. At the same time, ground reinforcements need to be made in the area.

“It’s so crowded in the ground that finding space for all the infrastructure is a challenge. We have to carefully plan how and where to supply the pipes to the various neighbourhoods. We will also need to move the transit line for district heating,” said Mr Osterberg.

The transit line is connected to Stockholm Exergi’s network and to E.ON’s new CHP plant at Högbytorp. The reason it needs to be moved is that properties will be built on the site where the current transit line is located.

“It’s unusual that you need to move transit lines”

“It’s unusual that you need to move transit lines,” remarked Mr Osterberg. “When we do it in Barkarbystaden, many people will be affected because the line is connected to the district heating network in Stockholm.

“The interruption – that is to say, the time when the line can be out of operation – can be a maximum of two weeks, and needs to be done in consultation with both new developments and those who have agreements for district heating supply,” he continued.

The new parts of the transit line will take about 10 months to build, FVB said in a statement. Resultantly, when the actual switchover is to happen, everything must be prepared in order to meet the schedule, the firm said.