Adven transforms the district heating in Kuusamo with electricity

Kuusamo EVO is responsible for the distribution of clean water, wastewater treatment and the production and distribution of district heating in the Kuusamo area. Adven’s Kuusamo plant has supplied EVO with district heating for over 30 years. The total demand for district heating in the Kuusamo city center is approximately 130 gigawatt-hours annually, equivalent to the yearly heating needs of around 8000 households. Under the current agreement, Adven has supplied approximately 100 gigawatt-hours of heating demand while EVO has provided the remaining approximately 30 gigawatt-hours.

With the new extended partnership, Adven will take over most of the district heating production in the city center, supplying it as wholesale heat to EVO’s district heating network. The new electric boiler eliminates the use of fossil fuels in the district heating production.

In the future, the electric boiler is planned to produce approximately 50 gigawatt-hours of heat annually, covering about 40% of Kuusamo’s annual district heat production. The remaining 80 gigawatt-hours, or about 60%, will continue to be produced at Adven’s existing power plant that runs on local bioenergy.

“EVO chose Adven as its partner based on a long-standing collaborative relationship. We found Adven to be a reliable and competent partner. With this new agreement, we are strengthening our partnership well into the 2030s,” says Mika Mankinen, CEO of Kuusamo Energy and Water Cooperative.

The new energy center will be located in the Mäntyselkä industrial area in Kuusamo, decentralizing energy production and increasing its reliability. Adven is building an electric boiler with a capacity of 15 megawatts for electricity production, which is one of Adven’s largest electric boiler projects in Finland. The electric boiler will be connected to the network company’s 110 kV regional network via a new electricity connection. Owning a dedicated electricity connection facilitates reduced electricity distribution costs while ensuring a more competitive supply of district heating energy.

The energy center will also include a large thermal energy storage system, a district heating battery, which stores heat energy produced by the electric boiler during periods of low electricity prices. The storage, a hot water tank with a volume of 2,500 cubic meters, functions like a giant rechargeable battery. Rising to a height of about 25 meters and spanning 12 meters in width, the district heating accumulator releases stored energy into the district heating network when energy production costs are higher.

“The new energy solution, combining electricity and bioenergy production, enables automatic optimization of energy production. District heating is always produced using the most cost-effective production method available, and the charging of the heat accumulator is also optimized based on the cheapest production mode. This approach effectively leverages electricity market price fluctuations and reduces our customer’s energy production costs,” says Arto Liikanen, Key Account Manager at Adven.

“This solution broadens our energy production capabilities while strengthening the reliability of our operations. The existing boilers will be retained as a reserve for contingency needs,” Mika Mankinen says

“As a result of the cooperation, energy production in Kuusamo will shift significantly toward optimized electricity-based methods, reducing reliance on fossil fuel. This energy transition marks a major step toward sustainable energy production in Kuusamo. By stabilizing the price of energy, we can also achieve significant savings in energy costs,” Liikanen concludes.

Construction of the new energy facility will begin early next year, with the goal of it being operational by the start of 2027.

More info on:

Arto Liikanen, Key Account Manager, Adven, tel. +358 50 455 7439

Mika Mankinen, CEO, Kuusamo Energy and Water Cooperative, tel. 020 741 4904