Ennatuurlijk is a district heating company in the Netherlands with 62 networks that deliver more than 5.300.000 GJ heat every year to 85.000 households. The company's mission is to speed up the transformation to local and sustainable energy in the Netherlands and they strive to be 100% carbon neutral by 2040. Two of their district heating systems have been awarded: one the most innovative and one the most sustainable network of the Netherlands.

The district heating system in Hengelo maximises local waste heat opportunities and uses data and digital to optimise the system. The waste heat originates from the waste incineration company Twence. By processing regional wood and waste, steam is produced. With a turbine, this steam is partly converted into sustainable energy. Another part of the steam is transported to the district heating network in Enschede, and the remaining part is transported through a 2,3 km pipeline to Nobian. Here the steam is used to produce salt. In this process, the steam is used multiple times, resulting in low temperature waste heat. Heat pumps are used to upgrade the low temperature heat to higher temperatures. The energy that is needed to run these heat pumps, is generated by solar parks located at Twence.

“Most Innovative Network” and cooperation with Gradyent

To make their heating networks even more sustainable, Ennatuurlijk partnered with Gradyent to build a digital twin of their heating system. The Digital Twin creates a detailed and realistic physical view that is updated constantly with smart sensor data, source data and forecasts. It finds the optimum balance between flow and temperature and thereby ensures that minimal energy is wasted, customers get the required amount of heat and the heatpumps operate optimally.

Marion de Dooij from Ennatuurlijk:“By developing a Digital Twin with Gradyent, we gain more insights in the network. These insights help us with optimising the heat pumps and strategically placing a buffer. It also helps us to understand the influence of customer-side installations on the efficiency of our network. With this understanding we can utilise the available heat to a maximum, together with our customers.”

Would you like to learn more?

On the Celsius website, you can learn more about how Ennatuurlijk is integrating energy systems and watch the presentations from the webinar “Integrated Energy Systems”.

We’re happy to contribute to this innovative network and to shape the future of district heating together.