Evaluation of low-exergy heating and cooling systems and topology optimization for deep energy savings at the urban district level
Abstract
District energy systems have the potential to achieve deep energy savings by leveraging the density and diversity of loads in urban districts. However, planning and adoption of district thermal energy systems is hindered by the analytical burden and high infrastructure costs. It is hypothesized that network topology optimization would enable wider adoption of advanced (ambient temperature) district thermal energy systems, resulting in energy savings. In this study, energy modeling is used to compare the energy performance of “conventional” and “advanced” district thermal energy systems at the urban district level, and a partial exhaustive search is used to evaluate a heuristic for the topology optimization problem. For the prototypical district considered, advanced district thermal energy systems mated with low-exergy building heating and cooling systems achieved a source energy use intensity that was 49% lower than that of conventional systems. The minimal spanning tree heuristic was demonstrated to be effective for the network topology optimization problem in the context of a prototypical district, and contributes to mitigating the problem’s computational complexity. The work presented in this paper demonstrates the potential of advanced district thermal energy systems to achieve deep energy savings, and advances to addressing barriers to their adoption through topology optimization.
- Authors:
-
[1];
[1];
[2];
[3]
- Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States); National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States); National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Renewable and Sustainable Energy Inst., Boulder, CO (United States)
- Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Energy Efficiency Office. Building Technologies Office; USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Energy Efficiency Office. Advanced Manufacturing Office
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1660223
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1809350
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/JA-5500-77139
Journal ID: ISSN 0196-8904; MainId:26085;UUID:6ecab0e9-010e-40bd-b0d4-1ce68c6fef9c;MainAdminID:17306
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Energy Conversion and Management
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 222; Journal ID: ISSN 0196-8904
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION; topology analysis; hydraulic network modeling; buildings; fifth-generation district heating and cooling systems
Citation Formats
Allen, Amy, Henze, Gregor, Baker, Kyri, and Pavlak, Gregory. Evaluation of low-exergy heating and cooling systems and topology optimization for deep energy savings at the urban district level. United States: N. p., 2020.
Web. doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2020.113106.
Allen, Amy, Henze, Gregor, Baker, Kyri, & Pavlak, Gregory. Evaluation of low-exergy heating and cooling systems and topology optimization for deep energy savings at the urban district level. United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2020.113106
Allen, Amy, Henze, Gregor, Baker, Kyri, and Pavlak, Gregory. Fri .
"Evaluation of low-exergy heating and cooling systems and topology optimization for deep energy savings at the urban district level". United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2020.113106. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1660223.
@article{osti_1660223,
title = {Evaluation of low-exergy heating and cooling systems and topology optimization for deep energy savings at the urban district level},
author = {Allen, Amy and Henze, Gregor and Baker, Kyri and Pavlak, Gregory},
abstractNote = {District energy systems have the potential to achieve deep energy savings by leveraging the density and diversity of loads in urban districts. However, planning and adoption of district thermal energy systems is hindered by the analytical burden and high infrastructure costs. It is hypothesized that network topology optimization would enable wider adoption of advanced (ambient temperature) district thermal energy systems, resulting in energy savings. In this study, energy modeling is used to compare the energy performance of “conventional” and “advanced” district thermal energy systems at the urban district level, and a partial exhaustive search is used to evaluate a heuristic for the topology optimization problem. For the prototypical district considered, advanced district thermal energy systems mated with low-exergy building heating and cooling systems achieved a source energy use intensity that was 49% lower than that of conventional systems. The minimal spanning tree heuristic was demonstrated to be effective for the network topology optimization problem in the context of a prototypical district, and contributes to mitigating the problem’s computational complexity. The work presented in this paper demonstrates the potential of advanced district thermal energy systems to achieve deep energy savings, and advances to addressing barriers to their adoption through topology optimization.},
doi = {10.1016/j.enconman.2020.113106},
journal = {Energy Conversion and Management},
number = ,
volume = 222,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Jul 31 00:00:00 EDT 2020},
month = {Fri Jul 31 00:00:00 EDT 2020}
}
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