Ryan Rogers
Department of Mechanical Engineering, McMaster University, Canada
Vickram Lakhian
Department of Mechanical Engineering, McMaster University, Canada
Marilyn Lightstone
Department of Mechanical Engineering, McMaster University, Canada
James S. Cotton
Department of Mechanical Engineering, McMaster University, Canada
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http://dx.doi.org/10.3384/ecp19157543Published in: Proceedings of the 13th International Modelica Conference, Regensburg, Germany, March 4–6, 2019
Linköping Electronic Conference Proceedings 157:55, p. 8
Published: 2019-02-01
ISBN: 978-91-7685-122-7
ISSN: 1650-3686 (print), 1650-3740 (online)
A Modelica library for modelling and comparing District Energy Systems (DES) and Low Temperature Thermal Networks (LTTN) has been developed. The library consists of six unique models and a series of replaceable sub-models that allow for different scenarios for thermal energy generation. The fluid transport model and losses have been tuned using an empirical data set of a district energy system in operation.
An analysis was performed to compare the performance of an existing, operational four-pipe DES against an alternative design that consists of two onepipe LTTN. The results show that the LTTN implementation can drastically reduce the natural gas usage and in turn the carbon emissions of a district energy plant by over 90% during a two-week period in the transitional month of October for a thermal microgrid in Southern Ontario, Canada.
