Process Automation WarmteStad Groningen

WarmteStad Groningen manages the sustainable heat network of the city of Groningen and supplies more than 10,000 households with heat extracted from sun, water, air, and waste heat.

The system combines waste heat from data centers via heat exchangers and heat pumps for district heating, which requires robust automation.

A key challenge was that this combination of heat-generating units, buffers, and energy sources had never before been realized in the Netherlands.

Powerspex developed a complete control philosophy for waste heat from data centers, heat pumps, combined heat and power, and peak/backup boilers. The implementation included a redundant Siemens S7-1500 PLC system and software development via Siemens TIA Portal and WinCC. Subsequent expansions added solar thermal systems and ATES (thermal energy storage) for seasonal heat and cold management.

The heat network now features a reliable, flexible, and scalable automated system that enables a smart combination of heat sources, responds adaptively to demand fluctuations, and is scalable without major redesigns.