Liberalized market designs for district heatingnetworks under the EMB3Rs platform

Current developments in heat pumps, supported
by innovative business models, are driving several industry
sectors to take a proactive role in future district heating and
cooling networks in cities. For instance, supermarkets and data
centers have been assessing the reuse of waste heat as an extra
source for the district heating network, which would offset the
additional investment in heat pumps. This innovative business
model requires complete deregulation of the district heating
market to allow industrial heat producers to provide waste heat
as an additional source in the district heating network.
This work proposes the application of innovative market de-
signs for district heating networks, inspired by new practices seen
in the electricity sector. More precisely, pool and Peer-to-Peer
(P2P) market designs are addressed, comparing centralized and
decentralized market proposals. An illustrative case of a Nordic
district heating network is used to assess the performance of each
market design, as well as the potential revenue that different
heat producers can obtain by participating in the market. An
important conclusion of this work is that the proposed market
designs are in line with the new trends, encouraging the inclusion
of new excess heat recovery players in district heating networks