Wien Energie’s large-scale heat pump taps renewable sources to heat over 110,000 homes, supported by AuCom’s advanced soft starters in Vienna’s push for climate neutrality by 2040

In Vienna’s Simmering district, one of Europe’s most advanced and environment-friendly large-scale heat pump systems is helping drive the Austrian capital towards its goal of becoming climate-neutral by 2040.

Powering this shift is a critical component: medium-voltage soft starters from AuCom, which ensures that the plant’s compressors start and stop with maximum efficiency.

Local energy provider Wien Energie operates the system entirely on renewable sources, with electricity coming from a Danube hydroelectric power plant and waste heat from an adjacent wastewater treatment facility.

The heat pump, which already supplies green district heating to 56,000 households at an output of 55 MW, is expected to double its capacity to 110 MW, reaching over 110,000 households once fully operational.

To support this scale, AuCom has installed three L-MVE type soft starters, each rated at 500 A and short-circuit-proof to AFL 40 kA for 1 second.

Known for their compact design and advanced motor and load protection features, the L-MVE units include an interlocking mechanism, bypass circuit breaker, pressure relief channel, and an intuitive graphical interface that offers fast access to intelligent safety functions.

The series supports applications up to 1,700 A and 13.8 kV across a broad range of industrial motor control needs.

The heating sector accounts for around 40 per cent of Vienna’s CO2 emissions, making it a key focus in emissions reduction.

Once operating at full capacity, the system is expected to help Wien Energie avoid up to 300,000 tons of CO2 emissions annually.

To distribute the generated heat, two pumping stations have been built on-site, moving over 7,500 cu m of water per hour through Vienna’s 1,300-km-long district heating network, one of the largest in Europe.

"The large-scale heat pump plant from Wien Energie is nothing short of impressive," says Thomas Zirk-Gunnemann, CEO of AuCom Applied Motor Controls.

"We are proud to contribute to Vienna’s remarkable efforts on the path to a climate-neutral energy supply."

AuCom’s portfolio includes soft starters and frequency inverters suited to nearly all low and medium voltage industrial applications.

Zirk-Gunnemann notes a growing shift in industry: "Many companies are currently replacing mechanical drives with electronic ones to operate more sustainably and energy-efficiently. Our drive solutions are not only compact and state-of-the-art technically, but they can also be flexibly tailored to meet the specific needs of our customers."