Advancing the use of datacenter waste heat, solar thermal, power-to-heat and heat storage with a digital twin for district heating supply in Groningen

“Heat supplier WarmteStad is expanding their facilities to provide heat to approximately 10.000 housing units in the north-western part of Groningen (The Netherlands) using a district heating network. In their heat plant, WarmteStad upgrades the waste heat of two nearby datacenters (up to 6,5 MWth) to reach the supply temperature (70-90°C)
using heat pumps. The electricity for the heat pumps is provided by CHPs, adding additional heat production. In order to operate the heat pumps and CHPs steadily, a heat buffer is applied to smoothen the peaks in the heat demand profile. WarmteStad employs a predictive control strategy to improve the performance of the heat buffer within its physical boundaries. Gas-fired boilers provide peak capacity.”

(Citation: Bakker, D.J., Vries, D., van der Roest, E., et.al. – Advancing the use of datacenter waste heat, solar thermal, power-to-heat and heat storage with a digital twin for district heating supply in Groningen, p. 64-65 – In: Book of Abstracts: 9th International Conference on Smart Energy Systems, Henrik Lund (Redaktør), Brian Vad Mathiesen (Redaktør), Poul Alberg Østergaard (Redaktør), Hans Jørgen Brodersen (Redaktør) (2023))