A study on how efficient measures for secondary district heating system performance can be encouraged by motivational tariffs

Abstract

Background

District Heating (DH) is a technology that provides heating and domestic hot water to buildings and is an important technology for supporting the European energy transition. As such the heating systems increasingly resort to renewable heat sources and waste heat, it is even more important that they operate in the most efficient way possible. DH companies have access to the primary network of which they can impact system performance. To maximize the efficiency of the system, however, it is important that the system at the building level, known as the secondary system, is also efficient; otherwise, overall system efficiency is reduced. To increase system efficiency, return temperatures from the secondary system into the primary system have been targeted through motivational tariffs. There is limited information on how to establish a motivational tariff that motivates the customer to improve both the primary and secondary systems, which is a gap that this paper aims to fill.

Results

In this paper, the impacts of retrofit actions in secondary systems are assessed through simulations. The identified relevant refurbishment measures to lower the return temperature to the primary system are variable flow pumps, low-temperature radiators, parallel heat exchangers, and a pass-through DHW system. Apart from simulated refurbishments, we also identify that the secondary system sometimes generates excess heat, which is valuable to recover, especially during peak load periods for the primary system. Hence, motivational tariffs targeting secondary system efficiency should also encompass an incentive for the customer to make use of waste heat in the secondary circuit to lower peak demand for the DH system.

Conclusions

To date, the most commonly used parameters introduced to customers are linked to the flow of water through the customer’s asset and the bonus malus principle. The results from simulations show that DH companies can introduce additional parameters to support customers in guiding their secondary system to perform more efficiently. Increased overall system efficiency has a positive impact on both costs and emissions.