OREANDA-NEWS. After a construction period of only three months, E.ON and METRO Cash & Carry inaugurated a new micro combined heat and power (CHP) unit at the METRO Cash & Carry wholesale store in Dusseldorf. The state-of-the-art unit is the first of several projects that E.ON and METRO will execute as part of their recently agreed partnership for distributed energy solutions. As a start, E.ON has installed modern gas-fired CHP units at two German and two Russian wholesale stores of METRO.

Parallel to the Dusseldorf site, an identical CHP unit was inaugurated at the METRO Cash & Carry wholesale store in Berlin. The units will be used to produce heating and hot water for the stores and will also cover a portion of the stores' electricity needs. The units in Dusseldorf and Berlin have an electric capacity of about 250 kW. The two companies are committed to a long-term partnership: CHP units are planned for four other METRO Cash & Carry stores in Germany and at new stores opening in Russia. In Berlin a separate container solution was chosen, but in Dusseldorf the CHP unit has been directly integrated into the store's technical equipment room. The two CHP units allow remote control, which makes it possible to respond flexibly to price and demand peaks on the market.

E.ON will plan and install the CHP units, and METRO Cash & Carry will operate them. The units will lower the stores' energy costs and reduce their carbon emissions by up to 20 percent. A future option would be to supplement the on-site CHP units with solar power. At the Dusseldorf site, a photovoltaic system has been in operation since late 2007, producing over a million kWh of electricity until now.

The METRO Group is working systematically to use less energy and enhance energy efficiency across its business in order to lessen the impact of energy price movements and to shrink its carbon footprint. As part of this effort, it is deploying distributed energy solutions at several of its locations, including the METRO Cash & Carry in Schwelm in west-central Germany. An on-site micro gas turbine has been providing the hypermarket with an environmentally friendly and cost-effective supply of power and heat since 2011.

Distributed energy solutions are key technologies for the transformation of Europe's energy system. For many applications, cogenerating power and heat (or air conditioning) at the site where they are needed is a particularly efficient and climate-friendly form of energy supply. E.ON has long-standing international experience in distributed energy solutions, energy efficiency, and renewables. To further expand its distributed energy solutions business, E.ON has set up a new company called E.ON Connecting Energies. The focus of the company's international activities is on serving customers that have energy-intensive facilities at several locations and would therefore be able to achieve significant savings through intelligent, custom-tailored energy solutions.