Ongoing research activities at TU Darmstadt aim at improving the energy efficiency of its Campus “Lichtwiese”. In accordance with the national climate protection goals, CO2 emissions shall be reduced by 80 percent until 2050 compared to the level of 1990. The district heating and cooling networks and the combined heat and power (CHP) generation play a key role in the university’s energy efficiency strategy. The following components for future development are represented in a thermal model of the campus: (1) The cooling supply is switched from compression to absorption chillers supplied with CHP heat, in order to increase the operating time of the CHP plants, especially in the summer. (2) Thermal energy storage along with a predictive control algorithm for the operation of the energy system is implemented to increase the flexibility of the energy supply. This approach also allows to increase the operating time of the CHP plants. (3) The district heating network temperatures, currently depending solely on ambient temperatures, can be reduced considering the heat supply temperature inside the buildings. Thereby, the efficiency of the heat distribution is increased and alternative heat sources can be integrated more easily in the future
