Energy management in municipal energy systems

Municipal utilities will play an increasing role for the future energy supply, which will shift to a decentralized structure. We describe an energy management system of a municipal utility including different plants connected to a district heating network. The paper contains the algorithm of the data management, the description of the controlling system, and some optimization aspects of the energy system. The energy controlling has a key function for the efficiency of the generation process in a municipal utility. It is integrated in the energy management system of the organization. The paper demonstrates the integration of the utility into smart grid structures. The energy management system is used to increase the efficiency of the generation and distribution processes. The methods of the plant scheduling optimization are presented.