Supra-Regional District Heating Networks: A Missing Infrastructure for a Sustainable Energy System

• Main Authors: Simon Moser, Stefan Puschnigg
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-06-01
• Series: Energies
• Subjects: district heating; waste heat; energy cooperation; industrial symbiosis
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/12/3380

In analogy to electricity transmission networks, this paper analyzes the concept of supra-regional district heating networks (SR-DHN), connecting a large number of actors. Using a back-casting approach, a SR-DHN is assumed to exist and thus, implementation challenges, such as economic feasibility and energy losses, are circumvented in the first step (but are analyzed in the discourse). The paper then analyzes, in an interdisciplinary qualitative manner and supported by a case study, what technical, operational, economic and legal issues must have been resolved. Results show that the heat transmission network, being the backbone of the SR-DHN, is an expensive infrastructure, but is likely to become economic in a non-fossil energy system. By decreasing the reliance on single waste heat sources, SR-DHN allows longer payback periods and can thus be an enabler for using industrial waste heat. However, involving many actors requires comprehensive contractual foundations. The derived hypothesis is that SR-DHN, which is predominantly fed by waste heat, shall be operated with lower temperatures in winter (feeding the return while minimizing expensive winter losses) and high temperatures in summer (enabling alternative usages while accepting high but inexpensive summer losses).