A new biopower plant to be built in Kerava

The project to build a power plant producing electricity and heat for Keravan Energia Oy is underway. The investment decision has been made and the purchase agreements of the main components have been signed.

The new energy solution for Kerava, long in preparation, has now been launched. Keravan Lämpövoima Oy, a subsidiary of Pohjolan Voima Oy, has made the decision to build a new biopower plant to be located at the logistics centre under construction in Kerava. The power plant will be fuelled with forest chips, stumps, reed canary grass and peat.

The new power plant will produce electricity at the capacity of 21 MW, district heat at 48 MW and process heat at the capacity of 10 MW. All the energy will be supplied to the municipal energy utility Keravan Energia Oy The production of the plant will meet approximately 75% of the need for district heat in the town of Kerava and approximately 25% of the electricity supply of Keravan Energia Oy. The total costs of the project are estimated at 65 million euros. The start-up of the plant is scheduled for December 2009.

Orders have already been placed for the main components of the power plant have already been purchased. The bubbling fluidized bed boiler will be supplied by Metso Power Oy from Tampere, the steam turbine by MAN Turbo AG from Hamburg and the fuel handling system by Formia Vesme Oy from Kauhajoki. The project implementation and control consultant will be SWECO PIC Oy from Vantaa.

"The increased use of domestic fuels enhances the local production of reasonably-priced and environmentally friendly district heat and electricity at Kerava. The construction of the power plant considerably reduces the dependence of our energy supply on natural gas. The change from fossil fuels to biofuels is also beneficial as far as carbon dioxide emissions are concerned", states Jussi Lehto, Managing Director of Keravan Energia Oy. 

 "This investment is particularly significant for Pohjolan Voima in that it extends our 1.4 billion euro biofuel programme to the metropolitan region for the first time.  The southern location of such a big power plant will be an exceptional challenge for the procurement of biofuels", says Jari Niemelä, EVP of Pohjolan Voima Oy.