Over the last decade, urban districts are experiencing a quick transition towards more sustainable energy goals, improving energy efficiency measures and increasing the shares of renewable sources. In this context, district heating networks (DHN) are gaining more attention, given the opportunity they offer for making wide use of the distributed energy resources deployed and providing a high degree of flexibility by converting electricity and gas into heat, which can be stored and actively controlled to meet the loads. In this project, the student will be in charge to firstly analyze both the hydraulic and thermal models present in the literature for district heating network planning, identifying the inputs utilized and the mathematical models adopted in previous works. Moreover, the student will provide an analysis of the different DHN systems currently operating, conducting a techno-economic assessment on their benefits and drawbacks. Finally, the project will focus on developing the specifications for the creation of a model capable of automatically designing synthetic DHN, while taking into account power-to-heat energy converters, cogeneration plants, and thermal storage systems.
