Source: Energy & Management Powernews, July 29, 2022
How can renewable energies and waste heat, for example, be integrated more strongly into the heat supply? This is shown by the initial results of the "Urban Turn" research project.
The ongoing "Urban Turn" research project aims to qualify existing district heating networks for conversion to a higher proportion of renewable energies by improving design criteria. Together with its project partners, the energy efficiency association AGFW has now published a study summarizing the research results to date, the AGFW announced on July 28.
"With the research project, we want to highlight the requirements for the future pipeline-based heat supply," said Stefan Hay, responsible for the project at the AGFW. District heating suppliers are helped by this knowledge in concrete terms in practice, for example when it comes to drawing up transformation plans for the expansion and conversion of heating networks. "The potential of green district heating from a growing share of renewable energies is immense. Studies have shown that the market share of district heating in the heat supply can be increased to 30 percent by 2030 and the share of renewable energies in district heating generation can be increased to up to 45 percent in the same period."
In Germany, an average of three heat generation plants per district heating network currently cover the existing heat output demand over a total length of 21,482 kilometers at a total of 360,305 house connection stations, according to the current status according to the published Urban Turn study "District Heating Networks in the Context of National Climate Targets." According to the study, the market share of district heating in Germany is around 14% and the share of renewable heat sources is currently 17.8%.
Future district heating networks will be more decentralized and digital
However, this development also poses some challenges for the existing network infrastructure. "One result of our study is that district heating systems will have a more decentralized structure than is the case today due to the even greater use in the future of partly on-site renewable energies and waste heat," Hay explains. "In addition, overall grid temperatures will have to be lowered because often only lower temperature levels are available when renewable energy is fed into the grid. In order to be able to manage these more complex structures well, the digital recording of operating points within the heating networks is imperative."
The district heating supply must therefore be structured in a more digital and decentralized manner in the future. The results now published, however, are only a first step and are intended to form the basis for further research in the Kassel District Lab. The District Lab test center of the Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Economics and Energy System Technology (IEE), also a project partner of "Urban Turn," consists of a flexible test network with connected test stands for heat generators and consumers on a district scale, as well as a test track for pipelines. A digital control and regulation system allows the operating conditions there to be precisely set and measured. Other project partners are:
- Brugg Rohsysteme,
- the heating and cooling technology manufacturer Danfoss,
- the planning office GEF Ingenieur AG
- and the Hafencity University Hamburg.
The results of the simulations and experiments in the District Lab are expected to provide further important insights into the flexibilization, digitalization and transformation of grid-based heat supply in urban areas. The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and will run until 2025.
Interested parties can view the study on the AGFW website.
Author: Heidi Roider
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