The purpose of the INDDHEAT project (ELENA* project) was to assist utility companies in North Denmark to become greener and reducing CO2 emissions by providing up 90 % financial support to technical assistance. City of Aalborg was lead partner and supported both small- and larger-scale utility companies in their process to become more sustainable. The utility company “Brønderslev Forsyning A/S” as an INDDHETA partner, has primarily worked with master planning, targeted pipe-renovation and the involvement of the customers. The participation in the project has markedly helped the utility to bring down energy losses in the complete system from production, over the distribution of energy in the network to the end user-consumption. As by 2022 the overall energy loss in the distribution system is around 19%, a steep decline from 27% losses in 2015.

*Established in 2009, ELENA is a joint initiative by the European Investment Bank and the European Commission. ELENA provides technical assistance for energy efficiency and renewable energy investments targeting buildings and innovative urban transport. Since 2009, the facility awarded 136 projects with EUR 236m in grant, supporting a total investment of EUR 7.7bn.