A model of district heating using a CHP plant

The paper presents a static linear programming model of a district heating system in which the base load is covered by a cogenerating station producing heat and electricity. The model provides optimal investment decisions (generating station, hot water accumulator, peak units, distribution network) as well as optimal operating rules. The reliability of the cogenerating station is taken explicitly into account by introducing shortage costs in case of failure. It is assumed the electricity produced is sold at time-variable transfer prices to the public grid. Numerical results are provided for a medium-size city.