Umeå Energi
| Company type | Municipal Company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Electric utility, telecommunications |
| Founded | 1887 |
Area served | Umeå, Sweden |
| Products | Electrical power, District Cooling, District Heating |
| Services | Electricity generation and distribution, production, transportation and distribution, telecommunication, broadband services |
Number of employees | 270 |
Umeå Energi is an energy company based in the town of Umeå in Sweden.[1] It is responsible for the supply of electricity, along with providing district cooling, district heating as well as broadband services through a subsidiary by the name of UmeNet.[2]
History
The company was founded in 1887, reportedly due to a conversation between an engineer from London and a Swedish Mayor at a wedding. It has stated that it has plans to be "carbon dioxide free" by 2018 by adopting new methods of generating energy including using even more renewable sources.[3]
Operations
Umeå Energi has a power plant at Ålidhem that generates energy in the form of heat from various sources including household, industrial wastes and biomass. The heat generated is used to drive turbines. The company operates a second set of power plants at Dava that runs on cogeneration, or combined heat and power, thus generating power from wastes and biomass.[3] There are two plants at Dava. The first Dava plant's main power source is burning waste which it can do at 20 tonnes per hour creating 65 MW of power. Most of this energy is used for district heating with only 10 MW used to create electricity. The plant also burns waste from the logging industry. Air pollution is kept to a minimum due to filtration systems on the exhaust gases. The second Dava plant creates 105 MW of power from a similar fuel mix as the other older plant, but with the addition of peat. In this case only 30MW is used for electricity.[4] Apart from these two power stations, the company also operates a hydroelectric power plant, a wind farm, and also generates power using sewerage wastes.[3]
Phototherapy initiative
Umeå witnesses sunrise at 9 a.m and sunset at 2 p.m during some months, thus leaving it dark for most of the day. In order to overcome this problem, in 2012 the company installed lamps in multiple bus shelters as part of a light therapy (phototherapy) initiative to minimise the effects of seasonal affective disorder. The company stated in a press release that these lamps are safe, with ultraviolet rays being filtered out, and the light is generated using power from renewable sources.[5]
References
- ^ "Umeå, the first city in northern Sweden with rooftop solar panels Inauguration on May 3". Umeå: AB Bostaden. 2 May 2011. Retrieved May 4, 2014.
- ^ "Umeå Energi a summary in english". Umeå: Umeå Energi. Retrieved May 4, 2014.
- ^ a b c "Umea Energi Company Report". Energy Digital. Retrieved 2014-05-05.
- ^ Dava CHP, umea.se, retrieved 8 May 2014
- ^ Moore, Elizabeth Armstrong (28 November 2012). "Swedish town introduces light therapy to bus shelters". cNet. Retrieved May 5, 2014.