Current Issues of Russian and Mongolian District Heating Systems and Scientific and Methodological Lines for Solving Them

Abstract

Against the background of the commonality of issues facing district-heating systems (DHSs) in Russia and Mongolia, the prospective strands to overcome them through the widespread adoption of modern methods of mathematical modeling and information technologies are addressed in this paper. A brief description of the long-term experience of cooperation between the Energy Systems Institute of Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (ESI SB RAS) and the scientific and energy enterprises of Mongolia in the field of computer technologies for the analysis and development of operating parameters of the DHS is given. The study shows that this experience is in line with the current global trends in the modernization of district heating systems based on their digitalization and smartization. The concept of intelligent (smart) DHSs, their advantages, as well as the issues arising on the way of the DHS transformation into cyber-physical self-controlled systems are revealed. The results of the analysis of the state-of-the-art scientific and methodological developments and software in the field the DHS analysis and control smartization are discussed. The main results obtained at the ESI SB RAS in the formulation of the DHS adaptive control problems and the creation of a single information space are presented along with the methods for resolving specific issues of analysis, identification of models, and DHS optimization. Additionally, the paper focuses on the software developed at the ESI SB RAS to meet new conditions and requirements in three main applications: as a tool for automating calculations when developing adjustment measures to normalize and improve the energy efficiency of operating conditions; as a tool for integrating heterogeneous information resources into a single space; and as a platform for the development and adoption of the DHS computer simulation methods in  practice of operational dispatch control.