PERSPECTIVES ON KEY DIGITALIZATION CHALLENGES WITHIN THE DISTRICT HEATING AND COOLING SECTOR
By Oddgeir Gudmundsson, Director, Climate Solutions, Danfoss A/S, Nordborg
In November 2023, the final report from the IEA DHC project Digitalisation of District Heating and Cooling (DHC) was published [1]. The project aimed to promote the opportunities of integrating digital processes into different parts of DHC systems and end-user heating installations. The consortium behind the project included key research institutions, universities, and digital solution providers in the DHC. The report identified seven key challenges for developing digital solutions within the DHC sector. To overcome these challenges and ensure viable scale-up of digital solutions, it is vital to have a deep fundamental understanding of the interaction between the various system components. Without understanding the physical nature of DHC systems, there is a real risk that a digital solution will become a local solution with minimal scaling potential and an inherent risk of the solution provider abandoning the solution. There is no doubt that the modern advancement of digital solutions is the driver of a new evolutional paradigm of the DHC concept, and we will see increased application and development of digital solutions across the thermal supply chain in the years and decades to come. In this article, the author provides his perspectives on these challenges and how solution providers can address them.
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