Optimization of Energy Distribution in District Heating Systems

A district energy system plays very important role to fulfill energy demand in regional areas. This paper diagnoses the necessity of the development of an economical operation system for the efficient operation of district energy plants located in Seoul. The effect anticipated from the use of the optimal operation system is also analyzed. Production and consumption of energy are estimated for the district energy plants at Suseo, Bundang, Ilwon and Jungang located near in Seoul, Korea. The problem is formulated as a mixed integer linear programming(MILP) problem where the objective is to minimize the overall cost of the district energy system. From the results of numerical simulations we can see that the energy efficiency is improved due to the application of the optimal operation conditions provided by the proposed model.