Understanding effective width for district heating

Luis Sánchez-García, Helge Averfalk, Erik Möllerström and Urban Persson

Energy, 2023, vol. 277, issue C

Abstract: District heating is one of the technologies that can contribute to the decarbonisation of the European heat sector. Nonetheless, these infrastructures only deliver about a tenth of the heat demands in the continent. Therefore, it is essential to assess the expansion potential of these systems and to identify which areas should be target for further investigations, which calls for easy-to-use and straightforward methods such as Persson & Werner's network capital cost model. Pivotal parameters of the model are the effective width, a metric of trench length by land area, alongside the average pipe diameter and the linear heat density. This study has carried out an in-depth analysis of these crucial parameters with respect to both distribution and service pipes in a large Danish district heating network, which has allowed to explore the behaviour of effective width in a broad range of building densities and derive new equations for both effective width and average pipe diameter. The model has subsequently been validated in another large network in Denmark and several minor districts in the same country, showing the accuracy of the model on an aggregated level.

Keywords: District heating; GIS; Pipe network; Cost analysis; Effective width; Plot ratio (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:277:y:2023:i:c:s0360544223008216

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2023.127427

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