When the City of Kerava and Municipality of Sipoo built a joint sports arena, named Keravan ja Sipoon Energia-areena, the goal was to invest in energy efficiency, reliability, and renewable energy solutions. The heating system combines district heating, ground-source heat and the use of district heating return water. HögforsGST was responsible for the overall equipment design and delivery, which made the project implementation significantly easier.
A Versatile Sports Arena Needed a Flexible Energy Solution
The sports arena shared by Kerava and Sipoo is a large complex that includes football, athletics, and other ball sports. The different uses of the building also created special requirements for the heating system.
The project was important for Keravan Energia also from the perspective of local sports community support. The company actively cooperates with local sports clubs and wants to support sports activities and community spirit.
We do a lot of sponsorship work with local sports clubs. We support junior sports and local physical activity, so this arena project was a natural continuation for us.
Aleksi Törmänen, Network Services Manager, Keravan Energia
The goal was to create a versatile, energy-efficient, and cost-effective solution. The chosen solution was a hybrid heating system that combines bio-based district heating, ground-source heat, and district heating return water. Renewable energy sources played a key role in the project.
“The selected energy solution now relies strongly on renewable energy sources,” Törmänen says.
Different areas of the sports hall require different temperatures. The athletics areas are kept warm, while the football hall is much cooler during the winter season. This also made it possible to use new type of heating solution.
“Using district heating return water for heating customer spaces was a new solution for us, and it has worked very well,” Törmänen adds.
Energy Efficiency Was Visible Quickly
The system was taken into use during the construction phase in autumn 2025, and it has operated as planned from the beginning.
“All systems have worked as they should. We have been very satisfied with the solution,” Törmänen says.
The benefits of the hybrid system were quickly visible in energy consumption. During the first months of operation, significant savings were achieved compared to a traditional district heating solution.
“So far, the ground-source heating system has saved around 100 megawatt hours of energy compared to a system using only direct district heating,” Törmänen explains.
Hybrid heating also makes it possible to use different energy sources flexibly depending on the situation.
“Hybrid heating allows us to use the most cost-effective option for producing heat at any given time,” Törmänen says.
HögforsGST Provided a Comprehensive Project Model
Keravan Energia already had experience working with HögforsGST, which influenced the choice of supplier for this project. This time, the cooperation expanded even further.
“HögforsGST offered us a very comprehensive solution. We got everything we needed from one supplier, from design to equipment deliveries and partly even manufacturing,” Törmänen says.
HögforsGST was responsible for equipment design, dimensioning, and factory manufacturing of the piping between the units.Thanks to the pre-assembled solutions, installation work on site became much easier.
“In this project, HögforsGST did even more for us than before. In addition to equipment design and dimensioning, they also manufactured the piping connections ready at the factory, which made installation work easier on site,” Törmänen explains.
The comprehensive delivery model improved the overall project flow and helped keep the technically demanding project under control.
“We chose HögforsGST as our partner because we knew we would get a complete service from design to implementation,” Törmänen concludes.
