Off the gas is the motto

Created: 09/14/2022, 12:27 p.m

By: Susanne Greiner

The district of Landsberg, which operates the Kaufering Lechtalbad, is planning to replace the expensive gas heating with a heat pump and district heating.

© Lechtalbad

District – The room temperature in the district office and its branch offices will also be lower than before this winter.

Saving is announced.

What the district has already done, is doing or will do in the district's own properties was presented by district treasurer Thomas Markthaler to the district committee last week.

The two main sources of energy for the country rice are district heating and natural gas - the former is ideal at the moment, the latter threatens to become a financial shock at the beginning of next year due to an expiring contract: If you are currently only paying seven cents per kilowatt hour because of an old contract, the prices would already be at that 35 cents – “five times the current budget,” says Markthaler.

The fact that the cost of oil (especially necessary for the district senior citizens' home in Greifenberg) has now tripled - the district is currently paying 1.30 euros here - is almost mild.

The Lech Valley swimming pool consumes more than half of the approximately 4,600 megawatt hours of natural gas required per year (not including the needs of the municipal company Klinikum), even though 850 MWh were already replaced here by district heating by 2019.

The gas boiler there, which consumes around 900 MWh, will soon be replaced by a heat pump.

Then natural gas would only be needed for the combined heat and power plant.

Markthaler hopes that the heat pump will be ready for use next spring.

Fortunately, the gas boiler is currently running at zero, since both the water and the room temperature in the bathroom have been reduced.

The treasurer promises that liquid gas, which is required for the warm bath in Thaining, will also be replaced by heat transport.

This now pays off even without funding.

As far as the new contracts for energy supply are concerned, Markthaler sees problems with the contract for gas in particular: no offer will probably be received for the tender.

That is why the district is currently trying to draw up an “individual contract” with the basic suppliers in the district for monthly or quarterly fixed margins.

The pellet market, which is important for the Wolfgang Kubelka secondary school, has "come to a complete standstill," says the district treasurer.

No offer was received for the tenders.

It was only possible to get 32 ​​tons for 650 euros per ton - four times the previous amount.

As far as the supply of wood chips is concerned, which is particularly important for the Ammersee high school, Markthaler is in good spirits: "So far we haven't seen any price increases here."

There is another ray of hope when it comes to electricity: the contract for this runs until the end of 2023, according to Markthaler.

There can only be a price increase here if the government approves a levy.