Dispatch model for an Integrated Geothermal district heating system in the Netherlands

Abstract

Households use more than 27% of the end-use energy in the European Union, from which 40% can be attributed only to heating purposes. Similar numbers can be found for the Netherlands, where more than 95% of the households use gas-fired boilers to meet their heating and hot water demands. Such a high dependence on natural gas will have an impact on the residential cost of heat if the natural gas price increases in the future. Increasing the cost of domestic heat is not the only drawback related to using gas for domestic heating purposes. Burning natural gas causes high CO2 emissions from the residential sector. This opens many opportunities for replacement of the current residential heating system with a more sustainable one, such as district heating network. The main objective of this study is to develop an economic heat dispatch model for a residential area including a geothermal district-heating network combined with a thermal energy storage unit and central heat pumps. This model was used to analyse the possibility of using the excess electricity produced for providing cheap heat to the residential sector, consequently lowering the overall cost of the heating system. The outcome of the model showed that under certain forecasted (2050) costs for gas and CO2 emissions, the integrated district heating system is a more cost-effective and less CO2 emitting heating solution for the reference residential area in the Netherlands, than a scenario with individual gas boilers