Urban Energy Lecture: Accelerating low-carbon energy production with smart sector coupling

Lecture by John Flørning & Emil Reinhold Kristensen from Ramboll Energy Denmark
Hosted by the Urban Energy Institute
Date: Wednesday 26 May, 2021
Time: 4-5pm CET
Moderator: Kornelis Blok

Smart sector coupling between heating, cooling, and electricity is one of the most promising solutions for decarbonizing the energy system. In this talk, John Florning and Emil Reinhold from Ramboll will talk about a a new urban development district at the Kastrup Metro station in Taarnby, a suburb in Greater Copenhagen, and the first to combine district heating with district cooling and wastewater to produce low-carbon energy for the growing community and business sector in the area.

Abstract: This presentation will give a brief introduction to the planning for low carbon energy production looking into the coupling of different utility sectors in smart energy systems, highlighting main challenges for achieving a reduction of carbon and utilizing low carbon electricity. The presentation will look at the case of the City of Taarnby in Denmark and the combined production of heating and cooling as an example of effective sector coupling.

John Flørning has more than 30 years of experience in the energy sector with a specific focus on district energy systems and in recent 10 years with focus on electrification. He provides energy strategy and planning services to public and private clients with energy reduction and decarbonization goals.
His technical experience includes district energy planning, decarbonization strategy, energy supply technology screening and selection, energy scenario planning and modelling, heating and cooling storage strategy, and project financial analysis.
John has worked with several higher educations, municipal, and industrial clients on energy master plans that focus on decarbonization, electrification, and transitioning from fossil fuels to alternative low carbon energy supply technologies.
John’s extensive experience comprises of e.g. integration and techno-/economic optimization of technologies in energy systems as e.g. bio CHP, heat only boilers, heat pumps, geothermal energy, solar thermal, heat storage and cooling. His knowledge stretches from the overall energy system to a very specific technology knowledge.
Project management has been the recurring role in the projects. Latest, John has been project manager for a project for the district heating companies in Copenhagen regarding potential transformation of the systems to low temperature heating and technical responsible for the potential utilization of heat from a carbon capture facility at a waste to energy facility in Copenhagen.

Emil Reinhold Kristensen has a Master of Engineering in Sustainable Cities from Aalborg University and has been with Ramboll since 2019, where he started as a student worker and trainee.
In cooperation with Rambøll Energy, Emil wrote his master thesis about introducing public participation to energy planning. Here he examined what benefit it will have to municipalities’ energy planning if they included citizens in different ways and how it can be a tool for future energy planning to phase out fossil fuels. A tradition which is not common today, as energy planners in Danish municipalities do not think citizens want to participate, however, through interviews the opposite was shown.  
From his background and time in Rambøll, he has a strong interdisciplinary profile focusing on energy masterplanning and the feasibility of smart energy systems.
Emil is an part of energy planning team which looks at integration and techno-/economic optimization of technologies in energy systems as e.g. bio CHP, heat only boilers, heat pumps, geothermal energy, solar thermal, heat storage and cooling. His knowledge stretches from the overall energy system to a very specific technology knowledge. Emil primarily works with energy plans and project proposals to substitute natural gas for district heating where he analyses data, makes energy simulations, mapping, and economic calculations. Emil is also collecting, analyzing, and presenting data where he is modeling energy systems in EnergyPro, often looking and the benefits of duel production of heating and cooling in large heat pumps.

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