Design of district heating networks in built environments using GIS: A case study in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain

The efficient integration of high levels of industrial waste heat in low temperature district-heating networks is a promising technique that requires specific methodologies for its satisfactory implementation. This paper presents a novel methodology for assessing the energy and economic feasibility of new district-heating networks in existing urban areas for the integration of industrial waste heat sources. The methodology consists in an innovative multistep procedure using geographic information systems and data analysis tools, combining georeferenced data about buildings, industries and roads. The spatial distribution of the analysis area is divided into smaller buffers and grids, as a result, the routing design of the pipelines that makes up the district-heating topology is obtained under several assumptions. The methodology provides the most suitable area choice for the deployment of a district-heating, also implemented with a multi-step algorithm for routing the pipelines of the network. This methodology is applied to a particular case study located in Vitoria-Gasteiz (northern Spain). Different configurations for the district heating network are obtained with lengths of the network varying from 8 to 27 km. Payback values near to six years are achieved in most of the district-heating network configurations. The maximum payback period obtained within the configurations is 8.5 years. An economic sensitivity analysis is presented for the proposed optimal district-heating network configuration. The proposed methodology could be replicated for different case studies as long as the input data is available to the user.