A2PBEER – Affordable 

and Adaptable Public  Tecnalia
Buildings through 
Energy Efficient 
Retrofitting Víctor Sánchez

Train the Trainer Workshop
12‐13 September 2016, Bilbao
A2PBA2PBEER– Affordable and Adaptable Public Buildings through Energy Efficient Retrofitting

Smart Dual Thermal Network

Train the Trainer Workshop, 12‐13 September 2016, Bilbao 2
A2PBA2PBEER– Affordable and Adaptable Public Buildings through Energy Efficient Retrofitting

Content of the Presentation
 Overview. Features of conventional DH systems.
 The need for the Smart Dual Thermal Network
(SDTN).
 Main design features of the SDTN.
 Description of the main benefits of the SDTN.
 How and where the Technology can be used for
retrofitting.
 Evaluation.

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A2PBA2PBEER– Affordable and Adaptable Public Buildings through Energy Efficient Retrofitting

 Overview. Features of conventional DH systems.
– Formed by a DH plant, a distribution network and the building substations.
necessary to deliver energy to the connected buildings.
– Aggregated demand of the buildings of the district.
– Low integration level of RES and CHP at DH plant level.
– Low integration level of RES and CHP at building level.
– Cooling provided by conventional chillers/HPs deployed at building level.
– Adjustment of building system operation and energy request to the DH,
according to the evolution over time of demand and onsite production
(Reactive control strategies).
– Buildings seen from the thermal network as consumers that request a
variable amount of energy over time, delivered at some specific conditions
(temperature and pressure)

Train the Trainer Workshop, 12‐13 September 2016, Bilbao 4
A2PBA2PBEER– Affordable and Adaptable Public Buildings through Energy Efficient Retrofitting

 The need for the Smart Dual Thermal Network.
– Local production limited by instantaneous demand and short term storage
capacity. Sub‐optimal local production and coverage fraction.
– Buildings play the role of consumers and the DH the role of unidirectional energy
supplier, without any smart interaction.
– Centralized cooling not available at district level.
– DH system managed according to reactive control strategies (limited production
optimization capabilities)
– Huge technical and economic limitations to upgrade conventional DH systems to
DHC systems.
• Installation of a district cooling plant and deployment of a thermal distribution
network for cooling.
• Strong impact on the exploitation of the buildings (inconveniencies and
limitations for building users for prolonged time periods)

Train the Trainer Workshop, 12‐13 September 2016, Bilbao 5
A2PBA2PBEER– Affordable and Adaptable Public Buildings through Energy Efficient Retrofitting

 Main design features of the SDTN.
– Heating /cooling energy delivery to buildings through a single hot water
distribution network.
– Local production of cooling through sorption collectors deployed at building level
using solar irradiation and the thermal network as energy sources.
– Aggregation of building level heat production/storage capacity through the
deployment of the Smart Dual Thermal Substations to allow bidirectional heat
exchange with the thermal network.
– Heat generation based on CHP and RES at district and building level.
– Virtual District Plant formed by aggregation of building level heat production
systems.
– Optimized exploitation of RES and CHP production.
– Integrated District Energy Management system to operate the district according to
model predictive control strategies as an integrated optimized system.

Train the Trainer Workshop, 12‐13 September 2016, Bilbao 6
A2PBA2PBEER– Affordable and Adaptable Public Buildings through Energy Efficient Retrofitting

 Conventional Thermal Substation features.

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A2PBA2PBEER– Affordable and Adaptable Public Buildings through Energy Efficient Retrofitting

 Smart Dual Thermal Substation features
– Additional functionalities: Cooling and local production surplus delivery.
– Specific modules (heat exchangers) for each functionality.
– Energy recovery from the heating module to be used in the heating module.
– Typologies defined according to the required functionalities and modules.
• The Dual Bidirectional Substation (heating+cooling+bidirectional heat
exchange)
• The Dual unidirectional Substation (heating+cooling)
• The Heating bidirectional Substation (heating+bidirectional heat exchange)
– Distribution pumps for cooling and for up to 3 different heat demand types
(heating, DHW production, etc).
– Control valves (differential pressure control valve, 2 way proportional, 3 way
proportional mixing valve, etc).
– Auxiliary components (Temperature sensors, substation local controller, etc).

Train the Trainer Workshop, 12‐13 September 2016, Bilbao 8
A2PBA2PBEER– Affordable and Adaptable Public Buildings through Energy Efficient Retrofitting

 Smart Dual Thermal Substation features

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A2PBA2PBEER– Affordable and Adaptable Public Buildings through Energy Efficient Retrofitting

 Integrated District Management system
– The Integrated District Energy Management System is necessary to
operate the network as an integrated system according to a model
predictive approach.
– The developed ICT framework is formed by a cluster of Building
Supervisory Systems coupled to a District Supervisory System that will act
as master.
– The Building Supervisory System and the District Supervisory System, are
installed on top of the existing BEMS‐s and the DMS, and have the capacity
to disseminate the required control commands to implement the
optimized operational strategies at building and thermal network level.
– Integrated district model developed through an innovative co‐simulation
scheme coupling EnergyPlus building models with a Modelica thermal
network model.

Train the Trainer Workshop, 12‐13 September 2016, Bilbao 10
A2PBA2PBEER– Affordable and Adaptable Public Buildings through Energy Efficient Retrofitting

 IDEMS components and architecture

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A2PBA2PBEER– Affordable and Adaptable Public Buildings through Energy Efficient Retrofitting

 IDEMS components and architecture

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A2PBA2PBEER– Affordable and Adaptable Public Buildings through Energy Efficient Retrofitting

 Thermal Substation Design Support Tool (DST)
– User friendly tool (no need of specific knowledge of involved technologies).
– Possibility to import data coming from simulations or monitoring platforms.
– Steady state calculation algorithms.
– Implemented in Excel VBA.
– Provided outputs to support substation design:
• Definition of the required substation typology from the heat request and local
production profiles.
• Definition of the hydraulic arrangements.
• Evaluation of the potential of the heat recovery from the cooling module.
• Module rated power and HE model, retrieved from an ad hoc catalogue
(optional).

Train the Trainer Workshop, 12‐13 September 2016, Bilbao 13
A2PBA2PBEER– Affordable and Adaptable Public Buildings through Energy Efficient Retrofitting

 Thermal Substation Design Support Tool (DST).

Train the Trainer Workshop, 12‐13 September 2016, Bilbao 14
A2PBA2PBEER– Affordable and Adaptable Public Buildings through Energy Efficient Retrofitting

 Description of the main benefits. 
– Upgrade of DH systems to DHC systems without the deployment of a cool water
distribution network and without a district cooling plant.
– Increased production and optimized exploitation of RES technologies deployed at
building level.
– Increased production and optimized management of the CHP units of the Virtual
District Plant.
– Optimized building and district level system management through model predictive
control.
– Sorption collector deployment benefits.
• Hot water production during winter season (heating operational mode).
• Cool water productionduring summer season (cooling operational mode).
• Low temperature hot water production during summer season (cooling
operational mode).

Train the Trainer Workshop, 12‐13 September 2016, Bilbao 15
A2PBA2PBEER– Affordable and Adaptable Public Buildings through Energy Efficient Retrofitting

 How and where the SDTN can be used for

retrofitting.
– For the complete implementation of the SDTN concept the following technical and
economic conditions must be fulfilled:
• The district should be formed by buildings with different and complementary
energy use and local production patterns, in order to obtain synergies from
demand and local production aggregation.
• Presence of relevant aggregated heating and cooling demands.
• Adequate balance between fuel (gas, etc) and electricity prices.
• Favorable regulations regarding distributed production technologies.
• Availability of an integrated district energy management system operating
according to model predictive strategies.
– Partial thermal network implementations if some conditions are not met.

Train the Trainer Workshop, 12‐13 September 2016, Bilbao 16
A2PBA2PBEER– Affordable and Adaptable Public Buildings through Energy Efficient Retrofitting

 Evaluation of the SDTN and the sorption

collector.
– Validation and evaluation of the expected performance of the SDTN in
specifically defined virtual demo districts (several climatic conditions, etc)
– Thermal network performance evaluation through a detailed offline
sequential co‐simulation procedure including component, building and
district level modelling and simulation (EnergyPlus and Trnys)
– Evaluation of the performance of the sorption collector ongoing in an
educational district located in Ankara.

Train the Trainer Workshop, 12‐13 September 2016, Bilbao 17
A2PBA2PBEER– Affordable and Adaptable Public Buildings through Energy Efficient Retrofitting

Thank you for listening!

Train the Trainer Workshop, 12‐13 September 2016, Bilbao 18