Demand-Response Management of a District Cooling Plant of a Mixed Use City Development Segu Madar Mohamed Rifai Master of Science Thesis KTH - Royal Institute of Technology School of Industrial Engineering and Management Department of Energy Technology SE-100 44 STOCKHOLM Thesis Registration No.: EGI- 2012-011MSC Title: Demand-Response Management of a District Cooling Plant of a Mixed Use City Development. SEGU MADAR MOHAMED RIFAI Student Number: 731222 A-315 Approved Examiner Supervisor at KTH Date: 05/06/2012 Prof. Björn Palm Dr. Samer Sawalha Local Supervisor Dr. Hari Gunasingam Commissioner Contact person i | P a g e Abstract Demand for cooling has been increasing around the world for the last couple of decades due to various reasons, and it will continue to increase in the future particularly in developing countries. Traditionally, cooling demand is met by decentralised electrically driven appliances which affect energy, economy and environment as well. District Cooling Plant (DCP) is an innovative alternative means of providing comfort cooling. DCP is becoming an essential infrastructure in modern city development owning to many benefits compared to decentralized cooling technology. Demand Response Management (DRM) is largely applied for Demand Side management of electrical grid. Demand of electrical energy is closely connected with the demand of alternative form of energy such as heating, cooling and mechanical energy. Therefore, application of DR concept should be applied beyond the electrical grid; in particular, it could be applied to any interconnected district energy systems. District Cooling Plant is one of a potential candidate and Demand Response management solutions can be applied to DCP for sustainable operation. The study of demand response and its applicability has not been attempted previously for district cooling systems. To our knowledge, this is the first attempt to evaluate its applicability and economical feasibility. This thesis focused on some of the DR objectives which have the potential to implement for DCP of a mixed-use city. General published data on mixed use city developments and a specific city in Dubai was taken as a case study to show the usefulness on DRM objectives. This study primarily addressed the issues related to load management. The findings are: DRM creates greater flexibility in demand management without compromising service levels. Also it reduces the operation cost and impact to environment. However implementation is a big challenge. Therefore implementation strategies are also proposed as a part of recommendation which includes a generic model for demand response management. Moreover, a review is provided on key enabling technologies that are needed for effective demand response management. Finally this thesis concludes with recommendations for prospective applications and potential future works. Key Words: Mixed-Use City, District Cooling Plant, Demand Response Management. ii | P a g e Acknowledgement All praise is to Almighty God on whom ultimately we depend for sustenance and guidance. First of all I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Hari Gunasingam for his guidance, and time consuming proof reading of manuscript. Also his excellent research attitudes always inspire and encourage me and without him it would have been a dream. I am very much grateful to Dr. Samer Sawalha from KTH, for his kind support and assistance to make this study a success. I sincere gratitude goes to staffs of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Open University of Sri Lanka for their utmost support and dedication in making this thesis a success. Especially I would like to thank Mr. Ruchira Abeweera, coordinator, DSEE program, Sri Lanka, for his tireless help and consistent support extended to me for making this work a success. I am also indebted to my colleagues at DSEE program for their support, motivation, encouragement and peer review of my report. I regret my inability to thank many individuals who assisted this effort through contribution of data, studies or articles. Finally, I thank my parents, wife, Aazmy and my children Ayesha, Adhnan and Hashim for their care, love and emotional support during my hard times and their patience during my hectic work schedule. Mohamed Rifai, February 2012. iii | P a g e Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................................. ii Acknowledgement ............................................................................................................................ iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................... iv Figures ................................................................................................................................................ vii Tables ................................................................................................................................................. viii Abbreviations ...................................................................................................................................... ix 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Cooling Demand in Mixed-use city development ........................................................... 2 1.2 Demand Management Problems ........................................................................................ 3 1.3 Research Objectives .............................................................................................................. 4 1.4 Methods ................................................................................................................................. 8 1.4.1 Literature survey ............................................................................................................. 8 1.4.2 Case Study ....................................................................................................................... 9 1.5 Layout of the Thesis ........................................................................................................... 10 2. District Cooling Plant ............................................................................................................... 12 2.1 District Cooling Plants (DCP) and Future City Developments ................................... 12 2.1.1 Introduction to District Cooling Plant ......................................................................... 15 2.1.2 Benefits and Challenges ................................................................................................. 16 2.2 District Cooling Technology and its Components ......................................................... 18 2.2.1 The Cooling Technology ................................................................................................ 18 2.2.2 The Central Plants ........................................................................................................ 20 2.2.3 The Distribution Networks ........................................................................................... 21 2.2.4 The Consumers’ Systems............................................................................................... 22 2.2.5 Thermal Energy Storage (TES) system ......................................................................... 22 2.2.6 Operation and Control .................................................................................................. 23 iv | P a g e 3. DRM-Electrical Analogy to DCP ............................................................................................ 24 3.1 Demand-Side Management ............................................................................................... 24 3.1.1 Demand-Side Management Concept ............................................................................. 24 3.2 Demand Response .............................................................................................................. 26 3.2.1 Why is Demand Response Important? .......................................................................... 26 3.2.2 Types of Demand Response ........................................................................................... 27 3.2.3 The Benefits of Demand Response ................................................................................. 29 3.3 Demand Side Management of DCP ................................................................................. 29 3.3.1 Electrical Analogy of District Cooling Model ............................................................... 29 3.3.2 Traditional Load Management and its problems of DCPs ............................................ 30 3.3.3 The Demand Side Management in DCP ....................................................................... 31 3.3.4 DRM for load management of DCP .............................................................................. 31 3.3.5 Challenges ...................................................................................................................... 33 4. Case Study................................................................................................................................... 35 4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................