Heating and cooling sectors contribute to approximately 50% of energy consumption in the European Union. Considering the fact that heating is mostly based on fossil fuels, it is then evident that its decarbonization is one of the crucial tasks for achieving climate change prevention goals. At the same time, electricity sectors across the globe are undergoing a rapid transformation in order to accommodate the growing capacities of non-dispatchable solar and wind generators. One of the proposed solutions to achieve heating sector decarbonization and non-dispatchable generators power system integration is sector coupling, where heat pumps are perceived as a perfect fit. Air source heat pumps enable a rapid improvement in local air quality by replacing conventional heating sources, but at the same time, they put additional stress on the power system. The emissions associated with heat pump operation are a combination of power system energy mix, weather conditions and heat pump technology. Taking the above into consideration, this paper presents an approach to estimate which of the mentioned factors has the highest impact on heat pump emissions. Due to low air quality during the heating season, undergoing a power system transformation (with a relatively low share of renewables) in a case study located in Poland is considered. The results of the conducted analysis revealed that for a scenario where an air-to-water (A/W) heat pump is supposed to cover space and domestic hot water load, its CO₂ emissions are shaped by country-specific energy mix (55.2%), heat pump technology (coefficient of performance) (33.9%) and, to a lesser extent, by changing climate (10.9%). The outcome of this paper can be used by policy makers in designing decarbonization strategies and funding distribution.

The paper will present a technical analysis of the performance of the Heat Pumps (HP) installed in the domestic water pipe network for a big city scale. The HP integration scheme predicts the domestic water flow as a heat source and the district heating as a heat sink. The technical factors which influence on the estimated thermal power and performance of HP unit will be identified. Additionally, the pros and cons of HP operation in water intake will be determined. The analysis will be based on long-term measurement data from Głogów city.

Ever-increasing power market and environmental policy enforce growth of renewable power sources. Renewables inflexibility and dependency on weather condition causes periodically imbalance in power system due to the green power overproduction. With the increase of renewable sources, the balancing problems in power system will be increasingly significance issue. It is proposed to use individual heat pumps as a next tool for energy system adjustment support. Power system adjustment will be carried out by active demand side management by intended domestic hot water tanks overheating. The smart grid individual heat pumps setpoints will be switched at community or even country scale. The strategy allows shaving the overproduction peaks through short-term increase of electricity consumption in remote controlled heat pumps and to lowering power demand during green power deficits using the thermal energy stored in overheated domestic hot water. The dynamic mathematical simulations were made to define the operation and limitation of active control strategy of heat pumps integrated into smart grid. The results allow testing and assessing the potential of individual heat pumps as a next tool for balancing the power system with large scale of renewable power.

E3S Web of Conferences, open access proceedings in environment, energy and earth sciences

Nowadays office buildings are faced with high and long-term cooling demand with grate heat recovery potential. In low heating demand office buildings not all of recoverable excess heat can be utilised, so it forces to search the consumers beyond the energetic boundary of office building. One of more promising way is supplying residential building by excess heat to meet the space heating and domestic hot water demands. Proposed cross-building cooling-to-heating energy flow allows transferring and utilizing excess heat from office building in residential as a useful heat. This solution creates the flexible and sustainable environment and meets the energy challenges of the future, in line with current energy trends and policy.

Proposed alternatives scenarios methodology allows retrospective analysing of decarbonisation processes in 26 national Public Electricity and Heat Production (PEHP) sectors in EU, based on 1990..2016 national CO₂ emission inventories. The CO₂ emission driving forces for PEHP sectors were defined and investigated in 26 years emission pathways approach. Graphical overview of 108 prepared (real and alternatives) emission pathways allow assessing CO₂ emission factors impact, pathways grouping and indicating the dominant pathway of 1990..2016 decarbonisation in EU national PEHP sectors. The alternatives scenarios methodology based on historical data enables to drawn lessons from past to move the European PEHP into a low-carbon future.