The URBANopt project has successfully leveraged
OpenStudio/EnergyPlus to model buildings and electrical
systems at an urban scale; however, URBANopt has
lacked the ability to model district thermal energy systems
until recently. This paper will present the modeling
infrastructure that was developed specifically for the
analysis of district heating and cooling systems, and how
it is integrated into the existing URBANopt framework.
The paper also discusses the development of new models
added to the Modelica Buildings Library to model various
district energy system components including loads,
energy transfer stations (ETS), distribution networks, and
central plants. The paper describes how different building
loads can be modeled including time series, TEASER
reduced-order models, or Spawn of EnergyPlus models.
URBANopt District Energy Systems allows the user to
switch between the various configurations
