Comprehensive price–reliability analysis for district heating systems

Abstract

The paper addresses the joint determination of nodal thermal energy prices and reliability indices in district heating systems for various emergency conditions (failures of components). The main goal is to establish the relationship between the obtained indices and determine the “narrowest” areas (bottlenecks) corresponding to the maximum economic losses due to a disruption in the heat supply to consumers. Calculation of the nodal thermal energy prices relies on the Lagrange multiplier method and factors in different production costs at heating sources and flow distribution in the heating network. The parameters used in the problem solved include heat undersupply to consumers in emergency states of the system and related economic damages. The general methodological framework for modeling thermal-hydraulic conditions in the system (including emergency ones) rests on the methods of the theory of hydraulic circuits. The developed methodological and computational tools are used to conduct a computational experiment for a test diagram of a district heating system. The obtained results are analyzed, and their graphical interpretations are presented.