page_title: Cold district heating
section_title: Role in future energy systems
hierarchical_section_title: Cold district heating / Role in future energy systems
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Sektorkopplung und Funktion von Power-to-X-Technologien
context_page_description: Cold district heating is a technical variant of a district heating network that operates at low transmission temperatures well below those of conventional district heating systems and can provide both space heating and cooling. Transmission temperatures in the range of approx. 10 to 25 °C are common, allowing different consumers to heat and cool simultaneously and independently of each other. Hot water is produced and the building heated by water heat pumps, which obtain their thermal energy from the heating network, while cooling can be provided either directly via the cold heat network or, if necessary, indirectly via chillers. Cold local heating is sometimes also referred to as an anergy network. The collective term for such systems in scientific terminology is 5th generation district heating and cooling. Due to the possibility of being operated entirely by renewable energies and at the same time contributing to balancing the fluctuating production of wind turbines and photovoltaic systems, cold local heating networks are considered a promising option for a sustainable, potentially greenhouse gas and emission-free heat supply.
context_section_description: Low-temperature heating networks, which include cold local heating systems, are regarded as a central element for the decarbonisation of heat supply in the context of energy system transformation and Climate change mitigation. Local and district heating systems have various advantages compared to individual heating systems: These include, for example, the higher efficiency of the systems, the possibility of using combined heat and power generation and exploiting previously unused waste heat potentials. In addition, they are seen as an important approach to increasing the use of renewable energy sources and reducing primary energy requirements and local emissions in heat generation. By dispensing with combustion technologies for feeding into the cold heat network, carbon dioxide emissions and local pollutant emissions can be completely avoided. Cold heat networks are also seen as an opportunity to build up heat networks in the future that are fed 100% by renewable energy sources.
  Another promising approach is the use of cold local heating systems and other heat pump heating systems for sector coupling. Thus, power-to-heat technologies on the one hand use electrical energy for heating, and on the other hand the heating sector can help to provide the system services to compensate for the fluctuating green electricity production in the electricity sector. Cold local heating networks can thus contribute to load control via heat pumps and, together with other storage systems, help to ensure security of supply.
  If the roofs of the buildings supplied are equipped with photovoltaic systems, it is also possible to obtain part of the electricity required for the heat pumps from the roof of the consumer. For example, 20 PlusEnergy houses have been built in Wüstenrot, all of which are equipped with photovoltaic systems, a solar battery and a heat storage tank for the highest possible degree of self-supply through flexible operation of the heat pump.
caption: The extensive electrification of the heat sector is a central component of sector coupling
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