Digitalisation of district heating and cooling an essential technology – report

The digitalisation of district heating and cooling is essential to decarbonising the thermal energy system, a new IEA report states.

The report, from the IEA’s technology collaboration programme on district heating (Annex TS4 project), points to the digitalisation of district heating systems as representing a paradigm shift in the production, distribution and consumption of heat.

Sensor technology, IoT connectivity and AI algorithms advancements provide prospects for higher energy efficiency, system stability and increased integration of renewable energy sources.

However, for successful deployment, issues such as data privacy and system integration must be addressed.

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The report, Digitalisation of district heating, notes that the district heating and cooling sector accounts for more than half of total energy consumption in many industrialised countries and is thus a primary area for the needed decarbonisation of the energy system.

However, the sector is facing novel challenges, which will result in the decarbonisation making it both more complex and more important.

For example, a few large plants which utilise fossil fuels will be replaced by many small production plants distributed around the system, that use renewable or waste energy sources – many of which are volatile with their output affected by weather and other factors.

Furthermore, district heating and cooling systems must be operated more efficiently and flexibly to ensure a consistent and cost-effective thermal energy supply, as well as effective participation in the balancing markets.

Among the findings of the report are that the increased complexity of the systems can be efficiently managed by leveraging data from the field and other diverse sources, such as market prices, weather forecasts, etc., through digitalisation measures, such as the incorporation of the Digital Twin concept, resulting in effective design and more efficient operations.

Moreover, maximum performance is realised when the entire value chain is viewed as a whole. Buildings, particularly end-customers, have been underutilised, despite their huge potential for more effective operations.

Standardisation

The report, notes the need for some degree of standardisation and relevant reference benchmarks as beneficial for deploying and comparing digital solutions more efficiently. A dedicated effort should be directed to defining shared standards for data stream labelling, component naming and description of district heating and cooling network layout.

Well-documented datasets and use cases should be made available as reference benchmarks to compare solutions, as it is done in many other fields.

The report concludes that regardless of the existing scenario or available technology, there is the need to advance as soon as feasible and implement digitalisation measures.

Utilities can extract actual value from recorded data by enhancing the operational efficiency of their district heating and cooling systems or introducing new business concepts in this manner.

Early adopters’ experiences demonstrate that integrating these measures is simply a good investment.