The Impact of Electrified Heat Supply and Heat Storages in Nordic Energy Systems

Description

Conference presentation in the 19th SDEWES conference in Rome September 8 - 12.

Abstract of the presentation:

Finnish district heating systems are undergoing a transition towards clean energy production. Most of the district heating in Finland is already based on renewable energy sources, but concerns about expanding the use of biomass in energy production has arisen due to diminishing carbon sinks. To decarbonise district heating production, Finnish energy companies will invest on large capacities of electric boilers. These boilers and other power-to-heat technologies can help to balance the supply and demand in increasingly volatile electricity system, and thermal energy storages provide a more affordable solution to store surplus production.

Backbone model was used to analyse the impact of electric boilers and heat storages in Nordic electricity markets. The used model includes the power and district heating systems of Northern Europe and the largest Western European countries. The district heating systems of the seven largest Finnish cities were modelled in a greater detail. The impact of different size heat storages to the use of the electric boilers was also studied. The novelty of this study is the possibility to analyse the impact of the coupled power and heating sectors from the perspective of both, the large international energy system and the individual district heating networks.

The results show that the electric boilers are suitable technology to reduce the use of fossil fuels and biomass in peak demand production, but the increased power demand may increase the use of combined heat-and-power plants. The electric boilers can utilise the cheap electricity prices, and thus a large share of the consumed electricity can be covered with increased renewable power production. This reduces the curtailment of wind power. The impact is largest in Finland, but due to the power transfer between countries, some smaller impacts could be seen in the other regions as well. However, other power production methods will be needed to supply electricity to large capacities of electric boilers. For this reason, the total emissions do not necessary decrease, even though the fossil fuel consumption can be reduced in a local level. The large capacity of electric boilers increases the average electricity price, but it allows district heating to be produced at lower costs. The flexibility of the electric boilers can be increased by introducing thermal energy storages. Thermal energy storages allow the electric boilers to shift their load to the hours the cheapest electricity.

Period	10 Sept 2024
Event title	19th Conference on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems, SDEWES 2024
Event type	Conference
Location	Rome, ItalyShow on map