Lowering the system parameters of heating grids for the integration of renewable heat sources using soft sensors

Due to the new version of the "EU Renewable Energy Directive", which will come into force in Austria in 2021 at the latest, heating grid operators will in future be required to know the capacity utilization of their heating grid in detail and, on this basis, to make decisions about whether and under what circumstances a reduction will occur the grid temperature is possible, as well as whether and when decentralized systems can feed heat into the heating grid. In practice, the detailed grid data required for this is often not available.

In the “lowTEMP4districtheat” project, the use of soft sensors as a decision-making tool is being investigated. Soft sensors have been used in the process industry for many years to record process states in real time at points in reactors where no measurement is possible.

The use of soft sensors in heating girds can help to lower grid temperatures and all the associated advantages (lower grid losses, access to additional heat sources and increase their yields and efficiencies, lower degradation, etc.).

• Hoval Gesellschaft m.b.H.
• Energieagentur Obersteiermark GmbH
• Prozess Optimal CAP GmbH