Impact of Heat Pump and Cogeneration Integration on Power Distribution Grids Based on Transition Scenarios for Heating in Urban Areas

Marten Fesefeldt (), Massimiliano Capezzali, Mokhtar Bozorg and Riina Karjalainen
Additional contact information
Marten Fesefeldt: Institute of Energy and Electrical Systems (IESE), School of Engineering and Management Vaud, HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Route de Cheseaux 1, 1400 Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland
Massimiliano Capezzali: Institute of Energy and Electrical Systems (IESE), School of Engineering and Management Vaud, HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Route de Cheseaux 1, 1400 Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland
Mokhtar Bozorg: Institute of Energy and Electrical Systems (IESE), School of Engineering and Management Vaud, HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Route de Cheseaux 1, 1400 Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland
Riina Karjalainen: Institute of Energy and Electrical Systems (IESE), School of Engineering and Management Vaud, HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Route de Cheseaux 1, 1400 Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 6, 1-15

Abstract: Electrification of final use sectors such as heating and mobility is often proposed as an effective pathway towards decarbonization of urban areas. In this context, power-driven heat pumps (HP) are usually strongly fostered as alternatives to fossil-burning boilers in municipal planning processes. In continental climates, this leads to substantially increased electricity demand in winter months that, in turn may lead to stress situations on local power distribution grids. Hence, in parallel to the massive implementation of electric HP, strategies must be put in place to ensure the grid stability and operational security, notably in terms of voltage levels, as well as transformer and line’s capacity limits. In this paper, three such strategies are highlighted within the specific situation of a mid-sized Swiss city, potentially representative of many continental, central Europe urban zones as a test-case. The hourly-based power flow simulations of the medium- and low-voltage distribution grids show the impact of various future scenarios, inspired from typical territorial energy planning processes, implying various degrees of heat pumps penetration. The first strategy relies on the implementation of decentralized combined heat and power (CHP) units, fed by the existing natural gas network and is shown to provide an effective pathway to accommodate heat pump electricity demand on urban power distribution grids. Two alternative solutions based on grid reinforcements and controlled usage of reactive power from photovoltaic (PV) inverters are additionally considered to ensure security constraints of grid operation and compared with the scenario relying on CHP deployment.

Keywords: power flow simulation; urban energy grids; cogeneration; deployment of heat pumps (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/6/4985/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/6/4985/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:6:p:4985-:d:1094085

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().