4.2. Results
As a first approach, the aforementioned tools and assumptions have been used to evaluate and design a suitable implementation plan, in which the reference of the existing individual boilers (called “Ref” in the diagrams) has been compared to the implementation of 80% district heating and 20% individual heat pumps. The following list of different alternative investments in the district heating production units was analysed (The short name refers to the indicators in the three diagrams):
- VP-0: 80% of the buildings in question convert to district heating and the rest to individual heat pumps. The buildings are added to the existing district heating systems and only peak load boilers are added to the district heating supply.
- VP-300 and VP-400: The same as VP-0 just added the investment in large-scale heat pumps distributed among the district heating plants of a total of 300 or 400 MW electric input (COP ¼ 3).