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.
