Analysis of district heating substations for the reduction of the supply temperature and the integration of heat pumps

Today, most existing district heating networks belong to the second or third generation, characterized by supply temperature in the range of 90-120°C. The transition towards new generations foresees a lowering of these values. This change could lead to the integration of devices like heat pumps through which renewable energy can penetrate the sector. This thesis focuses on the analysis of a district heating network and investigates the possibility of reducing the supply temperature and integrate heat pumps. Thanks to modeling of the substations’ functioning, the network operating conditions have been evaluated. Two results deserve to be highlighted: the number of users that hinder the lowering of the network supply temperature are few; for most of the time the network is supplied at temperature higher than needed. Different scenarios have been investigated considering both the technical and economic point of view. With reasonable capital expenditure different degrees of improvement have been achieved. As last step, the possibility of integrating heat pumps in one of the subnetworks has been analyzed: the deployment of heat pumps depends on the investment. A reasonable capital expenditure has led to remarkable outcomes.