Exergy Efficiency Is a Key Performance Indicator to Rank Advanced Active Energy Technologies at the District Level

Supplying electricity, heat and cold is an essential part of the development of more sustainable city districts. Previous studies have illustrated interest in using the exergy efficiency concept to decompose the problem and rank the technology combinations for heating or cooling according to their overall efficiency. This methodology is extended herein to include network losses that depend on the temperature level and grid losses that play a role when comparing electricity supplied by the grid rather than by local cogeneration units. This extended method is then applied by considering two emerging technologies. The first is very-low-temperature district heating and cooling (DHC), directly supplying air-conditioning needs via simple heat exchangers, as well as heating needs via local heat pumps. It is part of what are called fifth-generation DHCs or “anergy networks” and based on water or, better, on CO2 heat-transfer fluid. The main features of the five generations of networks, as well as the average aggregate user needs, are summarized in pinch technology composites, but replacing the temperature axis with a heat exergy axis to graphically highlight exergy losses. The average aggregate heating and cooling needs of users result from the application of a geographic information system to a district in a real city. The second emerging technology considers hybrid SOFC–GT cogeneration units, with or without CO2 separation, supplying electricity to all network users, including decentralized heat pumps, while optimizing the recovery of waste heat. The full synergy between heat providers and users is highlighted, allowing districts without cooling towers or chimneys except at one energy balancing plant. Integration of the advanced SOFC–GT cogeneration unit considered herein into the same anergy network allows an increase in exergy efficiency from 13.6% to 21.3%, as compared with electricity being supplied entirely from the grid and produced with a similar natural gas fuel.