Location
Description
The first phase of the three-year FLEXYNETS project will concentrate on developing the technology for low-temperature (10-20°C) district heating and cooling networks. In this phase a laboratory will be set up in the Technology Park in Bozen-Bolzano, simulating a small-scale district heating and cooling network. This will enable the simulation and testing of different control strategies as well as operating scenarios.
The Italian laboratory will be directly designed to test network related aspects, focusing on distributed generation and low-temperatures solutions coupled to heat pumps. At the same time, it will include cogeneration equipment and a solar field. The conditions will be as close as possible to a real application.
The laboratory will comprise several substations, including:
- A piping network for the distribution of heat and cold. The network will be designed taking into account the multiple connections with the heat sources and sinks. Different types of pipes will be considered, aiming at testing various insulation conditions.
- A small trigeneration system for the production of heat, cold, and electricity. This system is an example of the kind of waste heat sources which can be considered in the innovative low-temperature DHC concept. The availability of a trigeneration system will allow to deal with real issues, like network management strategies and variable temperature of the sources.
- Reversible heat pumps to simulate the network users: at the moment are planned up to 10 network users.
Although the main goal of the laboratory is to test low temperature networks, the laboratory will be built to make possible testing (in stationary and dynamic conditions) also:
- Control logics for traditional high temperature (up to 100°C) networks
- Individual technologies for the production of cold and heat such as boilers, absorption and compression refrigerators, cogenerating units with thermal power up to 100 kW.