Investments in Nuclear Heating in Helsinki Metropolitan Area During Volatile Energy Markets

The commitment to the decarbonisation of the district heating (DH) system in Helsinki Metropolitan area requires investments in carbon neutral DH capacity in cities of Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa, and poses an opportunity for small modular reactor (SMR) based DH production. In this study, investments in SMR heatonly units and SMR combined heat and power (CHP) units are examined under varying natural gas and electricity market price scenarios. Energy system optimisation model for Metropolitan area is used in order to obtain investment levels and total annual costs for comparison purposes. The results of investment analysis indicate that SMR CHP units become profitable when annual average electricity market price reaches level of 70 €/MWh. The annual average production costs of district heating (€/MWh) vary significantly depending on used price and investment scenarios. In the case of SMR CHP investments, the annual average DH productioncost varies up to 24 €/MWh depending on price scenario, whereas only 5 €/MWh with heat only reactors. The results indicate that investments in SMR CHP units provide flexibility and cost benefits under high electricity prices, but SMR heat-only units provide a more stable option for the DH system