"uuid","repository link","title","author","contributor","publication year","abstract","subject topic","language","publication type","publisher","isbn","issn","patent","patent status","bibliographic note","access restriction","embargo date","faculty","department","research group","programme","project","coordinates"
"uuid:fcf5683d-d01b-4c38-950e-cdb0e46eda1e","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:fcf5683d-d01b-4c38-950e-cdb0e46eda1e","Engaging Dutch citizens in the decision making of district heating networks: Comparing the effects of a Public Value Evaluation and a survey","van den Berg, Joost (TU Delft Civil Engineering & Geosciences)","Hoppe, T. (graduation committee); Mouter, N. (graduation committee); Goes, K. (mentor); Spruit, S.L. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","The Dutch government is committed to transitioning to a low-carbon economy. District heating networks are considered essential for achieving this transition. This research aims to compare two different methods of involving citizens in decision-making and development related to district heating networks. The novel Participatory Value Evaluation (PVE) method is compared to a general survey to explore differences in the results of these two. The research approach encompasses multiple components, including 12 stakeholder interviews, the design and use of a Participatory Value Evaluation (PVE) and survey and subsequent analysis. The survey and PVE were even and randomly distributed across 2700 citizens of the neighbourhood Blijdorp in Rotterdam. This led to 138 completed PVE’s or surveys. As a last step the results of the two different consultations were analysed in terms of reaching the stakeholders goals. The research findings indicate that a Participatory Value Evaluation and survey have different results in incorporating the goals of the involved stakeholders. The PVE was able to create more detailed input for the stakeholders and was better in creating understanding of the complexity of the problems the stakeholders are facing. However, it is important to acknowledge that respondents in the PVE took longer to complete the evaluation and the PVE was rated more challenging than the survey. As a result, the response rate for the PVE was only half as much as the survey. This research contributes to the field of research into public participation in multiple ways. Firstly, the PVE has been applied in a new context. It has been shown that a PVE can be utilised to address the challenges of engaging citizens in the establishment of heat networks. Secondly, most studies on a PVE as a participatory method lack comparative research. This study demonstrates that a PVE and survey have distinct advantages and disadvantages. The identified advantages and disadvantages have been compared to findings from other studies on PVE. While some align with existing research, others present contrasting results.","PVE methodology; District Heating Network; Public Participation","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Civil Engineering | Construction Management and Engineering","",""
"uuid:89231e65-19f8-453b-bbdc-e8bed5d5952e","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:89231e65-19f8-453b-bbdc-e8bed5d5952e","Optimizing district heating networks: Exploring the solution space: Transporting geothermal energy to consumers in Delft","Piket, Martijn (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Heijnen, P.W. (mentor); Warnier, Martijn (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","Society is facing a huge challenge in switching the energy sectors dependence on fossil fuels into an energy sector using mostly renewable energy sources. The switch towards using more sustainable energy sources is known as the energy transition. The goal of the energy transition is to lower the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions emitted by the energy sector. Lowering the GHG emissions helps society limit the global warming caused by GHG [3]. 17.5 % of the global energy usage comes from the energy use in buildings [50]. It is thus very important that the energy use in buildings transitions towards using more sustainable energy sources. One of the renewable energy sources that is ought promising in the energy transition for energy use in buildings is geothermal energy [3]. Geothermal energy is energy that is captured in reservoirs of hot water in the earth’s crust. The hot water captured in the hot water pockets is pumped to the surface, to use it in spatial heating. The return pipe returns the cooled water to the geothermal well, where it can heat up again over a certain period of time [63] [23].
In some cases, geothermal energy is applied using a district heating network. A district heating network is an example of a system that provides heating and/or cooling capacities to a group of buildings [65]. A district heating network is a network of pipelines that transport the hot water from the geothermal well to the buildings in the district. A geothermal well in combination with a district heating network is developed in Delft [27]. The district heating network will deliver energy to the TU Delft campus, two neighborhoods in Delft and industry at the Schieweg in Delft [28].
Besides the district heating network in Delft, it is expected that district heating networks will be applied more often to accelerate the energy transition. Yun-Chao and Chen (2012) concluded that most optimization techniques optimize the whole system with its components. Less optimization techniques are applied to the sole components. Besides the fact that most optimization methods optimize the system as a whole, most optimization objectives only include optimizing the cost of the system. Also, effective optimization techniques are required as optimizing large graphs may be computationally time consuming [36]. In literature there are also clear signals that state that the trade-off between thermal comfort, and efficiency with respect to cost has to be tackled [53]. In this research, optimizing district heating networks for cost is compared to optimizing district heating to maximize thermal comfort or efficiency.
In this research two models are developed: a model that calculates the cost of the district heating network, and a model that calculates the thermal losses of the district heating network. Both models are applied to a district heating networks that is developed in a street network. Furthermore, multiple heuristics are applied to come up with better district heating networks. The optimization technique is tested on 100 small, randomly generated district heating networks. After that, the district heating network in Delft is optimized. The differences in cost, efficiency, etc. will be evaluated. Besides, the performances of the district heating networks are evaluated by introducing energy deficits under different conditions.
Optimizing the district heating networks for cost led to a very consistent result: When compared to their individual starting point, the district heating networks became cheaper and more efficient. A moderate-strong correlation is found between the the increase in efficiency and the decrease in cost while optimizing the district heating networks. In contrast to that, the networks that maximize efficiency are much more expensive than their cost optimized alternative, while the increase in efficiency is in most cases moderate. However, there are rare cases where the efficiency is increased much at a moderate increase in cost. This phenomenon is also found in Delft. Given the result that the efficient district heating network also performed much better than the cheapest alternative during energy deficits, in this research it is shown that choosing an objective function has a very large impact on the characteristics of the network. Therefore it is shown that for future district heating network optimization, it is important to trade off cost against efficiency.","District Heating Network; Optimization; Graph theory; Heuristics; street network; Pipeline networks","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Complex Systems Engineering and Management (CoSEM)","",""
"uuid:dfde4270-2b5e-473a-8906-748e0ace1979","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:dfde4270-2b5e-473a-8906-748e0ace1979","Optimizing supply temperatures in district heating grids","Stoel, Fianne (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)","de Weerdt, M.M. (mentor); Stepanovic, K. (mentor); Tax, D.M.J. (graduation committee); Everhardt, Rob (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2022","District heating systems (DHSs) have the potential to play a big part in the energy transition. The efficient operation of DHSs is therefore also an important subject of study. The operation of DHSs where combined heat and power (CHP) plants are used are particularly interesting, because CHPs can operate with high efficiency.
In this work, the operational optimization of DHSs with CHP plants is considered. Determining the optimal heat and electricity production for CHPs for multiple time steps into the future is a complex problem. Because of the heat storage capabilities in the network many solutions are feasible, but determining which solutions are infeasible because of constraint violations in the DHS involves computing time delays that depend on complex network dynamics.
In this work, the possibility of using an input convex neural network (ICNN) to learn the network dynamics of a DHS is explored. ICNNs have limitations on their learning capabilities, but theoretically allow for easier optimization. Experiments on the learning capabilities of ICNNs reveal that caution should be used when they are used to learn non-convex constraints, as the accuracy of the ICNN highly depends on how non-convex the function is. Experiments on the feasible space of supply temperatures to a small district heating network (DHN) reveal that although the network does not provide the same flexibility as heat storage tanks, still some flexibility in the operation can be found. This is due to the fact that water with a higher supply temperature is consumed by consumers at a slower pace and this increases the time delay between production and consumption. Supply temperatures that follow can then be lowered if the increased time delay causes this water to arrive when the heat demands are lower.
In the experiments it was found that this flexibility in operation translates to non-convex areas in the feasible space. When this space would be learned by an ICNN, this space would be made convex. How much of the flexibility would be removed by doing this is yet unknown and could be researched in future work. Other future work can be done on safely learning non-convex constraints with an ICNN.","District Heating Systems; District Heating Network; Neural Networks; Optimization; nonconvex optimization","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Computer Science","",""
"uuid:4ee7bd65-fe56-450d-92d5-6a0dcea38871","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:4ee7bd65-fe56-450d-92d5-6a0dcea38871","Thermal Energy Storage for District Heating: Feasibility assessment for the implementation of TES systems in various DHN cases","Perik, Reinout (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering; TU Delft Process and Energy)","Infante Ferreira, C.A. (mentor); Ganesan, A. (mentor); Vlugt, T.J.H. (graduation committee); Pothof, I.W.M. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","Of the global energy demand, 20% can be allocated to residential energy demand. Most of this energy is produced by fossil fuels, which raises the importance of energy production in a more sustainable way. In order to do this on the level of residential heating applications, the Dutch government aims to make its residential neighborhoods natural gas-free. An often considered solution is making residential areas all-electric. However, when considering the heating of these households based on electricity, high peaks may occur in the electricity grid due to simultaneous heating at times of high demand. This could cause problems regarding the capacity of the electricity grid. Subsequently, the generation of electricity is nowadays associated with relatively high CO2 emissions, raising the awareness for alternative methods of heating. One of these methods is district heating coupled to (more) sustainable energy sources. A problem occurring with this combination is a possible discrepancy between the supply and demand of energy. Therefore, it could be beneficial to implement thermal energy storage in district heating. This research assesses the feasibility of different configurations of thermal energy storage integrated into district heating. For this research, a case study is conducted in which district heating for a residential area coupled with thermal energy storage is modeled. The model is based on the thermodynamic equilibrium of the network and is able to compute the required characteristics and key performance indicators of the district heating network. For the case study, multiple scenarios have been created which assess different distribution characteristics and heat sources. For reference, an all-electric scenario has been designed as well. The results of the case study show that the implementation of thermal energy storage in district heating is able to lower peak loads on the heat source by two-thirds. This implementation goes paired with an increase in levelized cost of energy of 10-16% and 8-73% higher CO2 emissions, compared to district heating without storage and depending on the characteristics of the district heating net and its heat source. However, for certain heat sources, the advantages of thermal energy storage outweigh the drawbacks or thermal energy storage might even be considered to be inevitable. This is especially the case for renewable heat sources, of which its share in the future energy market is considered to be substantial. Also, the results show that every scenario considering district heating performs better on levelized cost of energy and CO2 emissions than the all-electric scenario. When designing new DH projects, it is key that different available heat sources will be considered and that an accurate trade-off is made between the advantages and drawbacks of thermal energy storage. This research is based on the comparison of various scenarios for a case study. Therefore, it does not focus on finding the optimal parameters for either district heating or thermal energy storage. For finding these optimal parameters, future research must be conducted.","District Heating Network; Thermal Energy Storage; Feasibility assessment; LCOE","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Mechanical Engineering","",""
"uuid:78ea9a50-e38e-49af-9472-13fc1fd4f33e","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:78ea9a50-e38e-49af-9472-13fc1fd4f33e","Comparison of Different Methods to Solve the Steady-state Flow Problem of District Heating Networks and Gas Networks","Mahieu, Mare (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science; TU Delft Numerical Analysis)","Romate, J.E. (mentor); Markensteijn, A.S. (mentor); Vuik, Cornelis (graduation committee); Dubbeldam, J.L.A. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","There are several different methods to solve the steady-state flow problem of district heating networks and gas networks. In this thesis, the nodal method, the loop method, and the loop-node method are compared. This is done in order to determine for what type of network, with specific characteristics, which of these methods is preferred. In this comparison, the focus is on computer storage, sensibility to starting values, convergence properties, and computational time.","Gas network; District Heating Network; Loop method; Nodal method; Loop-node method; Steady-state flow problem","en","bachelor thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Applied Mathematics","",""
"uuid:b2f88677-23c2-47e7-9428-e49060cb303e","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:b2f88677-23c2-47e7-9428-e49060cb303e","Heat Energy Market: Energy Trading in District Heating Systems","van Gestel, Lennert (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","De Vries, Laurens (mentor); Bekebrede, G. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","In order to reduce CO2 emission, district heat networks and carbon-neutral heat energy production are being developed in the Netherlands. This resulted in an increasing amount of district heating systems (DHS) in the horticulture areas. A DHS in a region called the ”B3-Hoek” connects multiple producers with horticulture companies in a single-buyer market model with long term bilateral contracts. This market model has some undesirable aspects that contribute to the willingness of introducing a short term heat market model in the system. However, such a short term market is still prone to market failures, if producers have considerable market power. The aim of this research is to investigate how a short term market can be designed for a DHS in the Netherlands, how producers and large consumers behave on a short term market and how this affects the performance of the market. An interactive simulation of a short term heat market was created, based on the DHS in the B3-Hoek to investigate this.
The findings in this research give a conceptual model of the new market design and it showt that in a short term heat market prices will converge to marginal cost levels when market conditions are not tight. There is a balance of market power between the producers and the horticulture companies collectively. The results of short term market will not be comparable to the case of a perfectly competitive market due to Cournot competitive behaviour, but they can still be considered desirable for both horticulture companies and producers.","District Heating; District Heating Network; Heat Energy Market; Short Term Trade; Wholesale; Horticulture","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Complex Systems Engineering and Management (CoSEM)","",""
"uuid:54f53b4b-1ab9-4964-8099-2251c3af3bd2","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:54f53b4b-1ab9-4964-8099-2251c3af3bd2","Optimising District Heating Operations","Stegman, Lars (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)","de Weerdt, Mathijs (mentor); Everhardt, Rob (graduation committee); Bosman, Peter (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","District heating systems (DHS) are considered the best alternative to individual heat boilers as they have higher efficiency and enable the use of sustainable heat sources, like geothermal heat sources or waste heat from industry. Currently, most DHSs are operated by choosing a temperature once every day depending on the weather. This setting is chosen such that peak demand can be satisfied. However, when demand is lower, the supply temperature will be higher than necessary and heat will be wasted. In addition to this, heat production costs can be dynamic over time, which allows more cost-efficient heat production scheduling. By choosing a dynamic temperature over the day losses and operating costs can be reduced. However, determining these dynamic temperatures is not easy, as there are several factors that need to be taken into account to ensure that demand can always be fulfilled. In this research, the use of metaheuristics is explored for finding supply temperatures. Optimisation of DHS operations results in up to 5% savings with respect to typical heating curve operations. The second contribution is a method to determine a theoretical lower bound on the operating costs of a DHS, as this was not yet found in literature.","district heating; District Heating Network; Optimisation; metaheuristics","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2020-10-16","","","","","",""
"uuid:e319f037-569a-40bc-a458-1ddae513d093","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:e319f037-569a-40bc-a458-1ddae513d093","Comparing the Performance of different Market Structures for Regional Heat Networks: A simulation study into the impact of fuel prices, consumption growth and investment decisions","Hartwig, wilan (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Lukszo, Z. (mentor); Bots, P.W.G. (mentor); Stikkelman, R.M. (graduation committee); van de Sande, Thomas (graduation committee); Keenan, Jan (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","This research has compared three different market mechanisms in a quantitative way. The influences of these market mechanisms on the heating system were investigated for CO2 emissions, consumer price and producer surplus. In addition, the influences of investment decisions and price and consumption growth scenarios were tested. The research showed that the end-to-end market mechanism is the least uncertain in the future and is only influenced by consumption growth. In addition, the construction of a large source of residual heat can moderate this effect. The wholesale market is strongly influenced by price scenarios. This effect can be moderated by the construction of the pipeline through the Midden, which connects two different heating systems. Finally, there is the single buyer market. This is influenced by both scenario variables, while no investment decisions affect it. Further research must be done into the latter market mechanism. And the models need to be extended to more specific markets because this research has used archetypes. Keywords: District heating network, Market mechanism, Single-buyer,","Market mechanism; End-to-End; wholesale; Single buyer; Investment decisions; District Heating Network; Price Dynamics; Consumption Growth","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Complex Systems Engineering and Management (CoSEM)","",""
"uuid:5d066126-5e6d-446a-8038-da805ded86d1","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:5d066126-5e6d-446a-8038-da805ded86d1","Development of District Heating Networks in Urban Areas","Van Beekum, D.","Itard, L.C.M. (mentor); Hasselaar, E. (mentor); Verhaeghe, R.J. (mentor); Sanders, F.M. (mentor)","2009","The development of district heating networks in urban areas descibes an approach to achieve the goals and targets for energy saving, reduction of CO2-emissions and sustainbale energy that are stated by the government. For the development of district heating networks energy conversion systems are used of generating heat and networks are used to distribute heat. The Thesis descibes how to select possible district heating network alternatives and how to support decision makers in selecting a prefered district heating network by applying screening strategies and determining of environmental, technical and economical impacts.","energy saving; CO2-emissions; district heating networks; decision making strategies","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2009-10-15","Civil Engineering and Geosciences","Transport & Planning","","","",""