Thermal energy storage and digitalization in district heating, for the transformation to renewable and resource-efficient energy systems. Sub-project: Implementation and scientific support of the overarching energy management system.
The "TRAINING" project is being carried out as part of a European collaboration between the Clean Energy Transition (CET) partnership with partners from Germany, Norway and Sweden. This partnership is an initiative co-financed by the European Union that brings together research and innovation organizations to support joint developments for the accelerated implementation of the energy transition.
The overall goal of the "TRAINING" project is to implement an intelligent, cross-sectoral and resource-efficient energy system at the neighborhood level. A transformation of the heat supply of neighborhoods can be achieved through renewable and cost-efficient heat sources that can be tapped locally, as well as through existing storage potential (e.g. building mass).
To exploit this potential, new building automation systems are required. This will make district heating supply more economical and environmentally friendly. In addition, current district heating systems with the connected buildings offer great potential for storing thermal energy.
In the future, local heating systems will also be networked, enabling greater flexibility of the entire energy system. This flexibility can be used to make the heating supply more resource-efficient, and thus more economical and environmentally friendly. In order to scale the proposed solutions, the project approaches will be tested in a laboratory plant, at least three case studies and several synthetic studies in the three participating countries, and further implementation will be prepared.
Currently, district heating networks are mostly designed and controlled on the basis of stationary or quasi-dynamic models. However, the integration of renewable and decentralized energy sources results in dynamic effects that also play a decisive role in determining cost-effective storage potentials. Therefore, detailed dynamic system models are being developed by the research partners to compare control and energy management concepts, as well as retrofitting options at the neighborhood level. On the basis of these models, innovative control and regulation concepts for districts will be implemented directly by the industrial partners involved in the case studies. The work will be broadly based through development and implementation in several countries with different regulatory frameworks.
In order to achieve the project goals described above, the following subgoals have been defined for the consortium within the framework of international cooperation:
Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Economics and Energy System Technology