Business and socioeconomic assessment of introducing heat pumps with heat storage in small-scale district heating systems

Fossil fuel-based cogeneration of heat and power plants have a long history of supplying district heating in Denmark, however small-scale systems are progressively switching to biomass boilers for economic reasons. Biomass, however, should be reserved for other purposes where a storable fuel is pert...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Renewable energy 2019-08, Vol.139, p.904-914
Main Authors: Østergaard, Poul Alberg, Jantzen, Jan, Marczinkowski, Hannah Mareike, Kristensen, Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biomass boilers
Business economic feasibility
District heating
energyPRO and EnergyPLAN simulation
Heat pumps
Systems benefits
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Fossil fuel-based cogeneration of heat and power plants have a long history of supplying district heating in Denmark, however small-scale systems are progressively switching to biomass boilers for economic reasons. Biomass, however, should be reserved for other purposes where a storable fuel is pertinent. This paper investigates the transition of a biomass-based district heating system which is neither socioeconomically optimal nor optimal in terms of integrating fluctuating renewable energy sources or using biomass resources appropriately. First, EnergyPLAN is used to investigate the introduction of heat pumps in terms of the ability to integrate fluctuating renewables and overall system costs. Secondly, optimal business economic design and operation of the district heating plant are analysed using the energyPRO model where plant operation is optimised against an external electricity market. While heat pumps have a positive impact when factoring in the ability to exploit locally available fluctuating renewable energy sources and observing local biomass availability constraints, business economic analyses demonstrate a more uncertain feasibility of the potential switch and also demonstrate that significant flexibility through heat storage and overcapacity on heat pumps does not pay. •Comparing straw boilers and heat pump district heating systems.•System-wide analyses using EnergyPLAN.•Business economic feasibility studies using energyPRO.•Positive system’s effects of heat pump and storage combination.•Insufficient business economic incentives for implementing solution.
ISSN:0960-1481
1879-0682
DOI:10.1016/j.renene.2019.02.140