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Finland’s largest air-to-water heat pump plant runs on technology and expertise from VEO

December 7, 2023

In early 2023, Finland’s largest air-to-water heat pump plant began operating in Vermo, Espoo. Continuing a long-standing cooperation, Fortum turned to VEO for the electrification of the Vermo heat recovery plant, which now provides carbon-neutral heat to the district heating network in Espoo, Kauniainen and Kirkkonummi.

Transferring energy from outside air into water, Vermo is an industrial-scale heat recovery plant that provides both heat and cooling to thousands of residents in the Espoo district heating network. The 11-MW heat pump plant significantly reduces CO2 emissions by replacing the use of fossil fuels. Vermo is an important step towards both Fortum and Espoo’s commitment to producing affordable, carbon-neutral district heating during the 2020s.

A scalable substation tailored to Fortum’s needs

Fortum, one of the cleanest energy companies in Europe, trusted VEO to supply a substation and the electrification of the Vermo plant. The turnkey delivery included a variety of VEO and subcontractor products and services, such as project planning, a VEO E-House modular substation, low- and medium-voltage switchgear and bus ducts, transformers, supervised installation, commissioning, and customer training.

Located in an urban environment in Espoo, the Vermo heat recovery plant needed a tailored electrification and electricity distribution solution. VEO’s modular E-House substation was built to Fortum’s needs and can be scaled up to future demand. The E-House substation was fully assembled at VEO’s factory in Vaasa, which enabled high quality control and a shorter delivery time.

Better and better together

“VEO is reliable and professional, and an easy choice for a partner. Our project and collaboration in Vermo went well, and VEO’s electrification solution has proven to be of high quality”, says Tomi Suutari, Project Manager at Fortum about the collaboration at the Vermo plant.

Fortum has trusted VEO with automation and electrification solutions in energy production and distribution projects for 25 years already. Curbing climate change with sustainable energy production is a shared goal of the partners, that keep on honing their project cooperation skills together.

“The long-term cooperation between Fortum and VEO has continued in this successful project, which is a great testament to Fortum’s trust in us. This trust enables us to develop our products, services, and expertise, so that we can continue to serve our customer even better in the future. As we learn from experience and constantly strive to improve, all the shared know-how developed in our previous collaborations can be utilized in future projects. We are very proud to be a partner of Fortum”, says Rami Luoma, Sales Manager at VEO.