Potential-estimation of thermal micro-grids in urban areas based on heat load and building clustering

As a result of climate change, fossil heating systems must be replaced with renewable systems. The question arises whether it makes sense for each building to have its own new heating system or whether a thermal micro-grid is possible. In this paper a model is presented which allows to aggregate buildings into thermal micro-grid clusters. All gas-heated residential buildings of Basel (Switzerland) are marked via geo-data. The heat demand of each building is determined depending on the year of construction and is then converted into the heat load. Each building then is grouped into thermal micro-grids according to a given grid load limit. The thermal micro-grids generated in this way are marked in color, so that the potential of any given city district can be easily and quickly identified. If the grid load limit is increased, the number of possible micro-grids increases, also.