Periodic Reporting for period 2 - OPTi (OPTiOptimisation of District Heating Cooling systems)
Reporting period: 2016-07-01 to 2018-04-30
District heating and cooling (DHC) systems play a vital role in many cities and facilities, and their establishment is also motivated to achieve climate targets. Achieving operational efficiency is difficult since the transfer of thermal energy requires the transport of huge amounts of a medium, usually hot or cold water, over long distances from production sites to the consumers. Optimizing DHC systems in terms of energy efficiency therefore requires not only an understanding of future heat or cold demands of consumers but also an understanding of the flexibility of consumers in terms of their demands. Such understanding aids in planning, scheduling, and controlling both production and distribution in an optimal way to achieve energy efficiency while satisfying consumers demands.
The OPTi project targets to create a long-lasting impact by rethinking the way DHC systems are architected and controlled. The overarching goal is to create business benefit for the industry as well as to ensure optimal end-consumer satisfaction. OPTi will deliver methodologies and tools that will enable accurate modelling, analysis and control of current and envisioned DHC systems. The methodology is tested and validated both on a complete system level, and on the level of a building(s).
OPTi considers the dynamic behaviour of the DHC system, and will treat the stored thermal energy and consumer flexibility as a resource to save energy and reduce peak loads. For this end, learning mechanism are used to understand consumption patterns, a consumer interaction device, called the virtual knob, is proposed to assess the user comfort zone, and automated modeling mechanisms for generation of the digital twin of a DHC system are used to optimize the operation, control and demand management of the DHC system. This will lead to more environmentally-friendly way of utilizing a variety of energy sources and in turn providing an overall socio-economically sustainable environment.
The OPTi project targets to create a long-lasting impact by rethinking the way DHC systems are architected and controlled. The overarching goal is to create business benefit for the industry as well as to ensure optimal end-consumer satisfaction. OPTi will deliver methodologies and tools that will enable accurate modelling, analysis and control of current and envisioned DHC systems. The methodology is tested and validated both on a complete system level, and on the level of a building(s).
OPTi considers the dynamic behaviour of the DHC system, and will treat the stored thermal energy and consumer flexibility as a resource to save energy and reduce peak loads. For this end, learning mechanism are used to understand consumption patterns, a consumer interaction device, called the virtual knob, is proposed to assess the user comfort zone, and automated modeling mechanisms for generation of the digital twin of a DHC system are used to optimize the operation, control and demand management of the DHC system. This will lead to more environmentally-friendly way of utilizing a variety of energy sources and in turn providing an overall socio-economically sustainable environment.
In order to achieve the project objectives the OPTi Framework is suggested which is a set of modules that can be operated jointly or individually in the optimization. The centerpiece of the OPTi Framework is OPTi-Sim, which is a digital twin of the real-life DHC systems. It is the replication of the real-life systems dynamic behaviour in a simulation environment and enables the design and validation of optimization strategies before deploying them into the real-life system. Using OPTi-Sim demand response and control schemes are designed and validated. Moreover, a cost benefit analysis methodology is derived to assess the economic sustainability of the designed schemes.
In order to quantify the impact of the designed schemes five core key performance indicators (KPIs) along with a set of use cases are defined. The use cases are then translated into test cases for the two pilots, which are the district heating system in Luleå (Sweden) and heating and cooling system for the Son Llatzer hospital in Mallorca (Spain). Only the test cases relevant for the respective pilots are assessed in relation to the KPIs.
The proposed KPIs are:
- KPI-1 Reduced energy consumption;
- KPI-2 Reduced peak loads;
- KPI-3 Increased consumer flexibility;
- KPI-4 Validated digital twin;
- KPI-5 Increased economic benefit.
The development was initiated by an analysis phase where requirements and an architecture for the OPTi Framework were defined. This was followed by the build phase, where OPTi-Sim, models, methods for economic aspects and for control and optimization aspects were derived. That work was conducted in 3 development work packages. The subsequent validation phase then contained the integration work and all test and analysis activities. In the final outreach phase the focus shifted partially from technical work to promoting the results to stakeholder, while still efforts had to be placed on the finalization of all technical activities.
At the end all foreseen tests have been conducted in either simulation or real life and the acquired data from the tests was analyzed to assess the KPIs. In general, it can be concluded that all KPIs were assessed with good results and that all foreseen methods and tools as stated above were developed for the optimization of DHC systems operation and design. It also includes unforeseen tools, which target the controller tuning for building substations.
In order to quantify the impact of the designed schemes five core key performance indicators (KPIs) along with a set of use cases are defined. The use cases are then translated into test cases for the two pilots, which are the district heating system in Luleå (Sweden) and heating and cooling system for the Son Llatzer hospital in Mallorca (Spain). Only the test cases relevant for the respective pilots are assessed in relation to the KPIs.
The proposed KPIs are:
- KPI-1 Reduced energy consumption;
- KPI-2 Reduced peak loads;
- KPI-3 Increased consumer flexibility;
- KPI-4 Validated digital twin;
- KPI-5 Increased economic benefit.
The development was initiated by an analysis phase where requirements and an architecture for the OPTi Framework were defined. This was followed by the build phase, where OPTi-Sim, models, methods for economic aspects and for control and optimization aspects were derived. That work was conducted in 3 development work packages. The subsequent validation phase then contained the integration work and all test and analysis activities. In the final outreach phase the focus shifted partially from technical work to promoting the results to stakeholder, while still efforts had to be placed on the finalization of all technical activities.
At the end all foreseen tests have been conducted in either simulation or real life and the acquired data from the tests was analyzed to assess the KPIs. In general, it can be concluded that all KPIs were assessed with good results and that all foreseen methods and tools as stated above were developed for the optimization of DHC systems operation and design. It also includes unforeseen tools, which target the controller tuning for building substations.
Testing of the methodologies and tools has been conducted in both real life and in OPTi-Sim.
The project has resulted in the following achievements with respect to the KPIs: The potential for energy saving in buildings is estimated to up to 10% and savings in energy by reduction of losses is up to 2% for the complete distribution grid in Luleå; peak loads can be reduced by more than 40% in Luleå pilot and in the hospital for shiftable peak loads up to 61%; the comfort flexibility range for users was established to be plus/minus 1 degree Celsius; the validity of OPTi-Sim was 90% for replication of real-life events; and finally the economic benefit can be increased in the range of 1-23%.
While the results for KPI-2 and KPI-5 are a clear success, the results for KPI-1, KPI-2, and KPI-4 create a good real-life impact, are somewhat under the initial expectation of the project.
Nevertheless, the application of the developed tools in the OPTi-Framework to an existing DHC system enable increased energy efficiency, with a minimum of investments in hardware upgrades. Deploying remote access to building substations for sensing and actuation will further increase the energy efficiency. In addition, introducing the proposed consumer interaction device virtual knob, will also enable the consideration of the consumer flexibility in operation decision of the DHC system and buildings. Replication to other DHC system than the pilots used in OPTi is straightforward, but will require knowledge transfer to the replicating utility and training of the engineers and operators at the utility.
While the approach taken by OPTi make use of a classical and well-known workflow, the capabilities of the components have been enhanced well beyond the state of the art. The key innovations of the project are the virtual knob concept and automated model generation of the digital twin which constitutes a break-through, reducing the manual modeling effort to a minimum.
Most of the components of the OPTi Framework are exploitable assets which are now under investigation by stakeholder to further develop them to market-ready products. Some of the assets will also be exploited through the use of open-source distribution of tools. The stakeholder engagement was achieved through the participation in industry events and organisation of workshops at scientific conferences. The consortium has published 29 scientific articles throughout the duration of the project.
It can be concluded that the OPTi project was a success and has led to a number of innovations which will have an impact on the energy efficiency of district heating and cooling systems.
The project has resulted in the following achievements with respect to the KPIs: The potential for energy saving in buildings is estimated to up to 10% and savings in energy by reduction of losses is up to 2% for the complete distribution grid in Luleå; peak loads can be reduced by more than 40% in Luleå pilot and in the hospital for shiftable peak loads up to 61%; the comfort flexibility range for users was established to be plus/minus 1 degree Celsius; the validity of OPTi-Sim was 90% for replication of real-life events; and finally the economic benefit can be increased in the range of 1-23%.
While the results for KPI-2 and KPI-5 are a clear success, the results for KPI-1, KPI-2, and KPI-4 create a good real-life impact, are somewhat under the initial expectation of the project.
Nevertheless, the application of the developed tools in the OPTi-Framework to an existing DHC system enable increased energy efficiency, with a minimum of investments in hardware upgrades. Deploying remote access to building substations for sensing and actuation will further increase the energy efficiency. In addition, introducing the proposed consumer interaction device virtual knob, will also enable the consideration of the consumer flexibility in operation decision of the DHC system and buildings. Replication to other DHC system than the pilots used in OPTi is straightforward, but will require knowledge transfer to the replicating utility and training of the engineers and operators at the utility.
While the approach taken by OPTi make use of a classical and well-known workflow, the capabilities of the components have been enhanced well beyond the state of the art. The key innovations of the project are the virtual knob concept and automated model generation of the digital twin which constitutes a break-through, reducing the manual modeling effort to a minimum.
Most of the components of the OPTi Framework are exploitable assets which are now under investigation by stakeholder to further develop them to market-ready products. Some of the assets will also be exploited through the use of open-source distribution of tools. The stakeholder engagement was achieved through the participation in industry events and organisation of workshops at scientific conferences. The consortium has published 29 scientific articles throughout the duration of the project.
It can be concluded that the OPTi project was a success and has led to a number of innovations which will have an impact on the energy efficiency of district heating and cooling systems.