Neubrandenburg's eastern city facing a water shortage: hot water failure in July!

Neubrandenburg's eastern city facing a water shortage: hot water failure in July!

A big project is coming up: Stadtwerke Neubrandenburg (neu.sw) is investing heavily in the future of district heating supply in the city. Millions will be invested in new lines, but this will also have a noticeable impact on the residents of the eastern part of the city. Again Northern Courier Reportedly, there will be a temporary hot water supply outage in July 2025, which is expected to affect around 13,000 people.

As part of these measures, the municipal utilities renovated an important junction and laid around 300 meters of new pipes away from the elevated road. This new route crosses under the Pasewalker railway track and enables a so-called “district heating crossing”. In order to integrate the new pipes, hundreds of cubic meters of water will be drained from the old pipes, which could lead to warnings about the temperature of the water for a certain period of time.

Planned interruptions and emergency procedures

The interruption of the district heating supply is specifically planned for the period from July 14th to 23rd, 2025. During this time there could be restrictions or even temporary outages in the hot water supply during peak times. However, a permanent failure is not to be expected as mobile heating stations are available for emergency supply. Hot water continues to be provided from the gas and steam turbine combined heat and power plant (GUD-HKW).

The new insulated steel pipes have a diameter of around 50 centimeters and are laid completely underground. The comprehensive renovation of the south-east line, which has been in progress since 2020, covers a total of around 3.5 kilometers, some of which dates back to the 1970s. The entire measure is expected to be completed by 2029, with a total of almost three million euros being invested.

Heating transition: focus on renewable energies

But that's not the only thing going on in the city. In line with the big concept of the heat transition, the municipal utilities are placing new emphasis on sustainable energy sources. How new.sw emphasizes, future heat supply will be supported by a mix of geothermal energy and solar thermal energy, including medium-deep geothermal energy systems. These should cover almost half of Neubrandenburg's heat needs, while solar thermal systems should contribute around 20 percent.

For these measures, the municipal utilities have already acquired land near the thermal power plant in order to install solar thermal systems. In addition, an earth basin storage facility will be set up to store excess heat for the winter, while a large air heat pump and a PtH system will contribute to making the system more flexible.

The future of district heating

The chances are good for the sustainable generation of district heating; The share of renewable energies in district heating supply is currently 18.8 percent and is expected to rise to 50 percent by 2030 Scramble explained. Technologies such as solar thermal energy, geothermal energy and biomass are crucial to achieving these goals.

The political framework, such as the Heat Planning Act and the Building Energy Act, further promotes this issue. From mid-2028 at the latest, all German municipalities must provide local heat planning in order to ensure climate-neutral operation of the district heating networks by 2045. Neubrandenburg is at an exciting turning point here; The next few years will show how well this transition succeeds. We want to shape this future together with the citizens, even if things could go a little haywire here and there during the transition period.