Thermal Inertial Aggregation Model for Integrated Energy Systems

TLDR

Integrated energy systems combine electrical, natural gas, and district heating subsystems, yielding high overall efficiency and renewable energy utilization. The study develops a concise analytical model of thermal inertia for district heating networks and buildings to support analysis, planning, and operation of integrated energy systems, introducing the thermal inertia aggregation model (TIAM). The authors model a radial district heating network with an equivalent start network, apply a synchronous response model for building heat loads, and formulate the TIAM, deriving its properties for general application. Simulations across systems of varying scale confirm that the TIAM delivers superior computational efficiency and protects sensitive information compared to existing approaches.

Abstract

Integrated energy systems (IESs) are composed of multiple heterogeneous subsystems, i.e., electrical power system, natural gas system, and district heating system (DHS), which endow the whole system with excellent performance in overall efficiency and renewable energy utilization. The paper aims to offer a concise and analytical model for the thermal dynamic characteristics (i.e., thermal inertia) of the district heating network (DHN) and buildings to facilitate the analysis, planning, and operation of IESs. Firstly, an equivalent start network is introduced for modeling the radial DHN, and a synchronous response model is proposed for buildings to approximate the optimal response of heat load. Secondly, the thermal inertia aggregation model (TIAM) is proposed, which offers an accurate DHN and buildings model for the planning and operation of IESs. Finally, some properties of the TIAM are derived to reveal its potential in general applications such as analysis and evaluation. Simulation results of different scale systems demonstrate the performance of the proposed model and reveal its advantages in the computational efficiency and sensitive information protection of DHN.