Abstract
The purpose of this review is to provide insight and a comparison of the current status of district heating (DH) systems for selected Baltic Sea countries (Denmark, Germany, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Sweden), especially from viewpoints of application and solutions of novel smart asset management (SAM) approaches. Furthermore, this paper considers European projects ongoing from 2016, involving participants from the Baltic Sea Region, concerning various aspects of DH systems. The review presents the energy sources with particular attention to renewable energy sources (RES), district heating generations, and the exploitation problems of DH systems. The essential point is a comparison of traditional maintenance systems versus SAM solutions for optimal design, operating conditions, and controlling of the DH networks. The main conclusions regarding DH systems in Baltic Sea countries are commitment towards a transition to 4th generation DH, raising the quality and efficiency of heat supply systems, and simultaneously minimizing the costs. The overall trends show that applied technologies aim to increase the share of renewable energy sources and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, examples presented in this review underline the importance of the implementation of a smart asset management concept to modern DH systems.
Highlights
The district heating sector constitutes an important segment of energy generation in all developed countries
Sea Region countries is constantly undergoing a transition related to increasing the share of renewable energy sources and the reduction of greenhouse gases emissions
Intelligent networks with demand site management are an inherent part of district heating systems (DHS) development and could have advantages in providing safe and efficient district heating (DH) systems
Summary
The district heating sector constitutes an important segment of energy generation in all developed countries. Thermal treatment of municipal solid waste is a way to minimize the number and area of landfills and to develop technology to recover energy accumulated therein into valuable heat for DH applications. Another advantage of the “waste to energy” approach is the reduction of both fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions [22]. Developing biomass district heating (BioDH) systems is a potential method to take advantage of agriculture and forestry residues or energy crops as an alternative to fossil fuels [25]. The authors proposed the connection of SDH with seasonal energy storage as an optimal solution
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