Marburg, Germany

The city of Marburg is located in the middle of the federal state of Hessen between Frankfurt and Kassel on the river of Lahn. The located county government is responsible for approximately 240,000 citizens and 72,000 thereof are inhabitants of the city itself.

One of the biggest heat consumers of the district heating network of the municipal utility Marburg is the Philipps-University Marburg. Founded in 1527 as the first protestant university in the world it became, with currently 25,000 students, an important factor for business, scientific and social life in the region. In May 2016 the state sold the 8 km district heating grid to the municipal utility Marburg. The contract also foresees that the network will be completely renewed for reasons of energy efficiency. The ambitious goal is to increase the overall efficiency with the benefit of decreasing costs and CO2 emissions.

Besides some remediation measurers the city is interested to lower the supply and return temperature level and searching for retrofitting possibilities for inefficient heat exchangers, substations and coupled network parts. With the political claim to reach a CO2 neutral country administration the municipal utility Marburg needs to check numerous options and get expert advice to develop the most efficient solution.