Bulgaria: Pernik District Heating Project

The Bulgaria: Pernik District Heating Project is situated in the district of Pernik, region of Sofia in Bulgaria. The aim of the project has been to rehabilitate the district heating (DH) system in the city of Pernik by rehabilitating 10 km of pipes (the total length of the DH system is 60 km), all 700 substations and installation of valves, compensators, heat exchanger and pumps. The substations have been operated with modern controls and monitoring equipment that has resulted in increased operating efficiency of the DH system. The project has converted Pernik DH network to a variable flow and has allowed groups of consumers to automatically regulate their heat consumption. The project has also reduced heat losses and has improved efficiency of the network so that energy consumption and CO2 emissions have been correspondingly reduced by 11% annually depending on the performance of the project.