A District Energy Planning Method with Mutual Interconnection and Interchange of Thermal Grids

Abstract

A general district energy planning method that can realize the mutual interconnection and interchange among thermal grids was proposed in the paper on the basis of energy bus system (EBS). In the proposed method, via the distributed variable speed pumps, multi-sources and multi-users were connected together with a warm line and a cool line. Because of the simultaneous decoupled hydraulic and thermal features of the presented EBS configuration, both energy sources and users are capable of adjusting their thermal devices flexibly according to their own local demands. In order to demonstrate the new district energy planning method, a hydraulic and thermal model was developed in the paper firstly, and then a case study was illustrated. The results show that combined with ground source heat pump, water source heat pump and steam Li-Br units, the proposed method can have well efficiency to utilize low-grade energy resources, with an integrated COP of 3.85 in summer and 3.17 in winter respectively.