Optimal Heat Flow in District Heat Networks with Tree Topology: A Convex Approach

Optimal heat flow in district heat networks (DHNs) is crucial and essential for the optimal operation of multi-energy systems. The primary objective of this paper is to achieve the optimal heat flow for DHNs with tree topology. A steady-state heat flow optimization problem is presented aiming to minimize the aggregate deviations between building indoor temperatures and user setting points, as well as the total input energy of the heat source, subject to practical operating constraints. Because this problem is nonconvex, we propose an accurate and physics-based model of the (lossy) heat network to convexify and efficiently solve it. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach which can handle the complexity of the lossy networks and generate the optimal heat flow solution.