A comparison of aggregated models for simulation and operational optimisation of district heating networks

Work on aggregation of district heating networks has been in progress during the last decade. Two methods have independently been developed in Denmark and Germany. In this article, a comparison of the two methods is first presented. Next, the district heating system Ishoej near Copenhagen is used as a test case. For the 23 substations in Ishoej, heat loads and primary and secondary supply and return temperatures were available every 5 min for the period December 19-24, 2000. The accuracy of the aggregation models has been documented as the errors in heat production and in return temperature at the DH plant between the physical network and the aggregated model. Both the Danish and the German aggregation methods work well. It is concluded that the number of pipes can be reduced from 44 to three when using the Danish method of aggregation without significantly increasing the error in heat production or return temperature at the plant. In the case of the German method, the number of pipes should not be reduced much below 10 in the Ishoej case.