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Energy conservation conflicts in district heating systems
Author(s) -
Rolfsman Björn,
Gustafsson StigInge
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
international journal of energy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.808
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1099-114X
pISSN - 0363-907X
DOI - 10.1002/er.857
Subject(s) - tariff , heat pump , marginal cost , heating system , economics , range (aeronautics) , storage heater , energy conservation , engineering , environmental economics , environmental science , natural resource economics , microeconomics , international economics , mechanical engineering , electrical engineering , heat exchanger , aerospace engineering
In Sweden, district heating of buildings is in common use. This paper deals with the district heating tariff. Many economists argue that the tariff should be based on short‐range marginal costs, but in practice this never occurs. Traditionally instead, the prices are set so they are lower than the alternatives. A case study is presented dealing with a residential building in Navestad, Norrköping. For this building, the life‐cycle cost with extra wall insulation and the introduction of a heat pump has been calculated. A comparison of two perspectives, the present tariff and a tariff‐based short‐range marginal cost, is done. It is shown that there is a conflict between the two perspectives. For the tariff based on short‐range marginal cost, neither extra insulation nor an introduction of a heat pump is profitable. However, with the present tariff, a bivalent system with a heat pump and district heating is profitable. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.