Last September, PlaMES project coordinator, Henrik Schwaeppe, RWHT Aachen, addressed the audience at the 7th Smart Energy Systems International Conference  in Copenhagen demonstrating the importance that District Heating will play in the Smart Energy Systems of the future.

We are proud to announce the publication on Energies, as open access, of the paper written following the conference on “Analyzing Intersectoral Benefits of District Heating in an Integrated Generation and Transmission Expansion Planning Model”.

The study explained in details in the paper, shows the benefits that district heating can have on the power transmission grid and how the sectors integration can improve both the total system costs and environmental footprint. 

In every scenario analyzed it seems that the maximum expansion of DH, in area were energy demand density is very high (urban zones), brings advantages to the overall energy system. Overall the adoption of DHcan reduce the annual system cost by up to €1.86bn reducing electricity costs by 3.20 €/MWh at expense of a slight increase in DH cost per MWh delivered.  

The PlaMES tool is currently being developed to provide a simple web app from which it would be possible to manage multiple variables and constraints and evaluate a specific scenario results in order to strategically design the optimal energy system of the future.

For more information about the study and its results: click here

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