Electrified district heating networks: a thermo-economic optimisation based on exergy and energy analyses

This paper presents a thermo-economic optimisation of an electrified district heating network consisting of wind power plant, gas-fired combined heat and power plant and heat pumps. The load flow problem of the resulting multi-energy system is formulated by considering all physical and operating parameters in both of the electricity and heat distribution networks. First, energy and exergy analyses are applied to identify and isolate lossy branches of a meshed heating network. This is followed by the optimal placement of heat pumps. Finally, supply and return temperatures are optimised. Particle swarm optimisation technique is implemented in order to find the best place of heat pumps, their economical dispatch and optimal temperature profile of the district heating network. Results show that up to 59.12% of the distribution heat loss and 9.37% of the operating cost can be saved by following a step-by-step methodology discussed in this paper.