The two winners of the Best Presentation Award at this year’s 2nd International Conference on Smart Energy Systems and 4th Generation District Heating were both chosen because of their excellent presentations of issues in the real world of district heating.

The winner of the PhD category, Industrial PhD Fellow Magnus Dahl from AffaldVarme Aarhus and Aarhus University, won the 1000 euro prize sponsored by Kamstrup for his presentation on “Applications of a heat load forecast with dynamic uncertainties”. His research is focused on cost and risk assessment in district heating systems.

The winner of Kamstrup's Best PhD Presentation award. From left: Neven Duic, Professor at Zagreb University, Magnus Dahl, Industrial PhD Fellow at Aarhus AffaldVarme and Aarhus University, and Steen Schelle Jensen, Head of Heat/Cooling Solutions at Kamstrup. Photo: May-Britt Vestergaard Knudsen.

“Operators and production planners in district heating are faced with decision making under uncertainty, and risk management is becoming increasingly important in the district heating sector. Much of this uncertainty stems from the forecast of the heat demand in the next few days, but uncertainty related to the production of variable renewable energy is also becoming more important. The overall target is to run the production and operation closer to the limits and lower the supply temperature and reduce heat losses,” said Steen Schelle Jensen, Head of Heat/Cooling Solutions at Kamstrup and part of the judging panel.

Real district heating systems

The winner of the Senior category, Martin Crane, is owner and Managing Director of the UK district heating and energy efficiency consultancy Carbon Alternatives. He won the 1000 euro prize sponsored by Danfoss.

“Our senior winner is a person working close to reality. The committee was impressed by his presentation of a substation test ensuring performance in real district heating systems,” said Sven Werner, Professor at Halmstad University in Sweden and part of the judging panel.

Martin Crane’s presentation was about the development of the UK Heat Interface Unit (HIU) testing regime which he worked on together with energy consultants Fairheat, inspired by a Swedish test and modified to British conditions.

He said: “It’s very flattering to be selected for this award by such an esteemed group of the world’s experts in energy efficient district heating. Over the years I have learnt much from their research. It’s great that they value the HIU testing regime we have developed in the UK. Many thanks to the DECC/BEIS for funding the research.”

“The test has already got HIU manufactures improving and retesting their products to achieve lower return temperatures under the real world test conditions. The test has also prompted the overdue consideration of how the efficiency of DH network can be achieved in practice, specifically consideration of standby performance. The test, through the calculation of a volume weighted return temperature (VWART) for each HIU tested now provides a more robust route to specifying a HIU that will be efficient in operation and puts, long absent, focus on the correct setup of the radiator in the heating system.”

See Fairheat's coverage of the 4DH award here.

The winner of Danfoss's Best Senior Presentation award. From left: Jan Eric Thorsen, Manager of Danfoss Application Centre, Martin Crane, Director of Carbon Alternatives, and Sven Werner, Professor at Halmstad University. Photo: May-Britt Vestergaard Knudsen.