Software tools for district planning

Software tools for districts

District energy solutions are becoming more and more central in the context of the energy transition. A large number of software tools have been developed in the past to simplify the planning process for various use cases.

EnergyPLAN and H2RES

A well-known planning tool is, for example, EnergyPLAN, which is developed and offered by the University of Aalborg. Although it is mainly used for national and regional energy system analyses, it can also be useful for district energy systems with some limitations. A tool developed specifically for energy systems with hydrogen technologies is H2RES. The two tools, EnergyPLAN and H2RES, were compared in a study using an island system as an example, and led to similar results. While H2RES has a technical focus, EnergyPLAN also includes an economic analysis. Both tools are deterministic and simulate system operating behavior for a typical year with hourly resolution. Unlike nPro, neither tool uses mathematical optimization models. This means the energy system configurations to be simulated must be specified by the user.

HOMER Energy

Another widely used tool is HOMER Energy. HOMER is a commercial tool for planning microgrids. It was originally developed for planning off-grid systems. The tool calculates the operation for different power system configurations, which have to be defined by the user. The optimal configuration can then be selected from the comparison of the different operating results. HOMER includes only a few thermal systems and considers heat generation and distribution technologies in a simplified way. This makes HOMER very different from nPro: nPro is specifically designed for thermal systems. While nPro is also suitable for the design of microgrids, the focus is on sector-coupling technologies (power-to-heat, power-to-gas, cogeneration plants).

Merit

Merit is another software tool for neighborhoods and local energy systems. It has been used, for example, to model a hybrid energy system with wind turbines and PV systems in a care home in Scotland. Merit simulates system operation using energy balances and hourly time resolution. In contrast to nPro, Merit does not include an economic analysis but only provides technical-energy support and analysis.

Tool development

Software tools for districts are usually developed from a special perspective. This means that special questions are addressed, which cannot yet or not sufficiently be answered with other existing tools, e.g. island systems with HOMER or hydrogen systems with H2RES. Often, these tools are then gradually extended to make them usable for a broader field of applications. An overview of tools for planning local energy systems is provided in Table 1.

Sources

1. A. Lyden, R. Pepper, P. G. Tuohy: A modelling tool selection process for planning of community scale energy systems including storage and demand side management, Sustainable Cities and Society, 39, 674-688, 2018. DOI: 10.1016/j.scs.2018.02.003.
2. EnergyPLAN website
3. H2RES website
4. HOMER Energy website

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