Introduction

UrbanHeatOpt is designed to support heat energy planning at the community level using publically available data sources. It provides a flexible framework for estimating heat demand, generating detailed heat demand time series, and evaluating the potential for waste heat utilization through district heating networks using linear optimization.

Main Features

  • Heat demand time series generation: Generates building-level heat demand time series using a probabilistic approach.

  • District heating network proposals: Offers clustering and greenfield network planning based on spatial and energy criteria.

  • Waste heat utilization assessment: Evaluates the feasibility of integrating local waste heat sources.

General Framework

The tool is structured into four modular software components:

  1. Prepare geodata Accesses building geometry and attributes from OpenStreetMap (OSM) and estimates annual heating demands based on building typologies.

  2. Generate heat demand time series Calculates heat demand profiles through thermal modeling combined with active occupancy simulations.

  3. Cluster heat demand and propose networks Performs spatial clustering of buildings to suggest candidate district heating networks, considering both technical and spatial factors.

  4. Optimize waste heat utilization Applies a linear optimization model to maximize the utilization of available waste heat sources, balancing investment and operational costs.

This datapipeline can be displayed as follows:

        flowchart TD
   A["OSM Data"] --> B["1 Prepare Geodata"]
   B --> C["2 Generate Heat Demand"]
   C --> D["3 Cluster + Prop. Network"]
   D --> E["4 Optimization Model"]

Each module is designed to be flexible and reusable, allowing for customization or implementation of parts in other projects. All intermediate results are stored in easily accessible, standardized data formats, enabling users to leverage the outputs for other applications and custom workflows.