The Impact of Distributed Heat Pumps on the District Heating System

The Republic of Moldova have presented, in March 2020, to the Secretariat of the UNFCCC the second Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC2). The country’s new economy-wide unconditional target is to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 70% below its 1990 level in 2030. The economy-wide conditional target, in NDC2 is up to 88% below 1990 level, if a global agreement addressing important topics including low-cost financial resources, technology transfer, and technical cooperation, accessible to all, is secured. The implementation of the NDC2 targets will require major change in current model of energy use in the country, in particular the advanced heat pumps are one option for district heating systems to secure clean and affordable heating for the people. The paper presents results of TIMES modeling of district heating system scenarios to year 2050, with consideration of climate change targets of NDC2. The results show that with CO2 emissions limits, the gas fired CHPs are replaced by distributed heat pumps at the consumers side. The results were obtained in the framework of the of the State Program 20.80009.7007.18: “Eco-innovative technical solutions for improving energy consumption in buildings and the smart grids development options with advanced integration of renewable energy in Moldova (SYNERGY)”.