Thermal Storage Systems for District Heating Networks

District Heating is an efficient way to provide heat to residential, tertiary and industrial users. Heat is often produced by CPH plants, usually designed to provide the base thermal load (40–50% if the maximum load) while the rest is provided by boilers. This choice is made on the basis of economic criteria, in fact the investment cost of a CHP plant is much higher than the cost of boiler, thus its use is convenient when it operates for a large number of hours. The use of storage tanks would permit to increase the annual operating hours of CHP: heat can be produced when the request is low (for instance during the night), stored and then used when the request is high. The use of boilers results partially reduced, thus the thermal load diagram is flattered. Depending on the type of CHP plant this may also affect the electricity generation. All these considerations are crucial in the free electricity market. In this paper, the use of storage systems connected to the district heating systems, is examined. A thermo fluid dynamic model of the tanks is considered in order to calculate the amount of energy actually provided, taking the real operating conditions into account. These considerations are applied to the Turin district heating system, in order to determine the impact of storage systems on the primary energy consumption required to supply heat to the users over the entire heating season.