An innovative project of a monitoring system for the district heating networks of the Municipality of Mantua was implemented by Sei, a company of the Tea SpA Group, manager of the service together with Sfera Energy Solutions, a company specialized in products, plant engineering, and services for district heating/cooling and renewable energy.
The aim is to create a “smart” supply of district heating in terms of efficiency and cost reduction.
Mantua, whose network heats a volume of 7 million cubic meters, had a leading role in the pilot project, started in December 2019, which saw the implementation of a system consisting of two Vexve iSENSE™ valves equipped with special sensors. These sensors provide essential information in terms of operation, leak-detection, energy consumption, and forecast of resources used to ensure maximum efficiency of the entire plant.
The setting up of these innovative valves equipped with sensors has been designed and developed to meet the increasingly looming need of knowing in real-time the status and operation of district heating systems.
This new system had enormous success in terms of efficiency and usability so that in December 2020, Sfera Energy Solutions was commissioned a second supply of four new valves equipped with iSENSE™ technology designed by Vexve.
The pilot project carried out in 2020 has been implemented in the Lunetta district in Mantua, where the heating network has been active since 1978 and is managed by a sub-station with special hot water production that can make the entire district completely independent. With these two valves, it is possible to “isolate”, if necessary, the network of the Lunetta district from the rest of the city. The other two new valves have been placed in the Mantua hospital area and a further pair will be installed within the year via Solferino.
