Now the small house owners in the Swedish capital also have the opportunity of getting district heating. For two years now, energy company Fortum´s district heating division Fortum Värme has been focusing this new customer sector. In a first round it expects to connect 3,000 small houses. FVB is engaged in the entire process, save sales.

Good margins in production, an extensive district heating system and a group of customers that so far does not have district heating. These were the three factors behind the decision in 2006 by Fortum Värme to focus on small house district heating in Stockholm.

“We saw small houses as a natural group of customers to carry on to work on. Our ambition in the first round, up to 2009, is to connect 3,000 small houses and so far we have 600 small houses connected,” says Mr. Christer Tronje, project manager at Fortum Värme.

When the small house project was started, an entirely new organization was formed to take on this venture. A decision was also made to carry out the small house projects on all-in contracts. FVB is one of the companies engaged in the small house venture and the company is in on the whole process, with the exception of sales.

“We are utilizing FVB in a number of projects. In the small house project they are participating in a major part of the process and we picked them because they are competent and have the resources to assist us,” Mr. Tronje says.

Starting sales to a completely new group of customers is not that simple and the starting distance has been longer, as compared to other projects.

“The organization for and sales to this group of customers were new, which partly explains why it took us longer than we were used to. Furthermore the small house owners were not accustomed to being offered district heating. We have been very active setting up a well-functioning organization and we have also put much effort into information and marketing. Last summer we felt that this was beginning to pay off and since then we have noticed an ever-increasing interest among the small house owners to connect to district heating,” Mr. Tronje tells.

It is the ambition of Fortum Värme to connect its small house customers to district heating in all its operational areas in Stockholm, comprising the western and southern parts of Stockholm, apart from the City. The district heating is offered by stages in various geographical areas. Fortum Värme starts with a smaller area of some blocks and if there is interest enough, this area is increased to surrounding blocks. Fortums calculations require that at least 50 percent of the houses must be connected for a project to be started.

“When we have reached a 50 percent connection level, we make the decision to build. Of course we would like more customers, but experience tells us that as soon as we start digging in the street, an additional number of small house owners want to sign a contract too,” Mr. Tronje says.