Volume 50

A GIS-based Co-Planning Approach for District Heating Networks Jonathan Vieth, Jan Westphal, Arne Speerforck

Abstract

District heating networks (DHNs) play a vital role in the transition of the heating supply of buildings to renewable sources. The sizing of the pipes of the DHN and the temperatures within the DHN each affect the heat losses and the required pumping power. In addition, the efficiency of a heat pump supplying the DHN is affected as well. Therefore, a co-planning approach that includes the operation of the DHN in the planning is required. This paper presents a co-planning approach based on real GIS data. The approach uses only five design variables (two for dimensioning the pipes, two for the supply temperature, and one for the producer). The optimal design variable configuration is determined by an optimization algorithm. The optimization includes a full year simulation of the DHN. The result of the planning process is a fully parameterized DHN with a matching supply temperature.

Keywords district heating network simulation, district heating network planning, graph theory, co-planning