Techno-economic analysis of control strategies for heat pumps integrated into solar district heating systems
Mohamed Hany Abokersh, Manel Vallès, Kangkana Saikia, Luisa F. Cabeza, Dieter Boer
Abstract
This present work focuses on assessing the techno-economic benefits of different control strategies for a heat pump integrated into the solar assisted district heating system (SDHS). The system has been developed using dynamic simulation software (TRNSYS) and optimized based on a genetic algorithm. With an industrial-sized heat pump connected to thermal storage tanks for domestic hot water (DHW) and space heating (SH) for the requirements of the community, a SDHS is operated by applying two different control mechanisms for the heat pump based on its reference operating temperature. The application of the methodology is applied to a residential neighborhood community of 10 buildings located in Madrid to act as a proxy for the Mediterranean climates. The results showed a significant effect for the heat pump control in the techno-economic benefits where the proposed system is able to provide a solar fraction up to 99%. Furthermore, the total electricity consumption of the heating system varied by 10% between the best and the worst cases. Besides, the annual seasonal storage efficiency improved up to 90% with a life cycle expense up to 67.12 Euro/MWh, and a payback period of 29 years.