District heating is a key in the mix of next generation energies for a climate-sensitive world. But a district heating network rollout requires big investments. Leveraging a GIS system, coupled with the Comsof Heat plugin, allows growing district heating organizations to smartly plan system growth on a budget.
Comsof heat is used from the master-planning through to detailed project development and shortens the period of techno-economic feasibility analysis from months to weeks. It is a powerful technical and communications tool that is inclusive of all competencies and roles within a heat network development process.
Through automation of the thought process and then augmented with manual fine tuning and discussion, it makes it easy for development, technical and executive teams to compare different energy strategies inclusively and without compromising detail. Thereafter, Comsof Heat is used as part of the zoning exercise to provide design insight applied into feasibility, planning and financial models. Swift and accurate scenario building is built based on GIS and energy data, local
knowledge and shaped based on basic technical parameters e.g. available heat supply and hydronic limitations.
The software provides key insights such as peak heat load, linear heat density, available heat supply, prevailing demand (selecting for dense heat demand), pipe selection, capital and operational expenditure and net benefit analyses.
Comsof Heat is GIS-based software which produces all the above in great detail. Thanks to its smart algorithms this is done with great accuracy and speed.
Comsof Heat provides extensive planning and design capabilities for district heating network designers. In addition, civil works can cause considerable nuisance to communities. A business case needs to be built, accompanied by a bill of materials, network visualization, scenario comparison, a rollout timeline and more. As this is complex and time consuming, more and more companies, authorities and engineering firms are looking for proven tools to plan these networks.
The software dimensions the network pipe system. You can modify the technical parameters such as temperature settings, pressure levels, pipe constraints and the cost of each network component. When all is set and calculated, simply assess the results on an area map. In the bill of materials, provided in Excel, Comsof Heat offers a comprehensive overview of all pipe system lengths and network deployment costs.
Network roll-out stages and different heat tariffs can be defined to calculate heat sales revenues and generate a financial evaluation report of the project over its lifetime of 30, 40, 50, … years.
Key benefits:
• Generate more reliable capital cost figures than with manual calculations
• Get detailed insights in your capital cost and material need with the comprehensive bill of
materials
• Discover potential revenues and pay back time
• Visualize high-level masterplans for large areas in apps like Google Earth
• Calculate and compare multiple network scenarios in a matter of hours
• Plan network deployment in several phases, with a separate bill of materials
About Comsof
Comsof, founded in 1998 and based in Belgium, is the world leader in creating intelligent network planning and design software. With more than 20 years of experience in GIS based optimization, Comsof’s team has deployed its solutions in over 70 countries.
Our flagship is Comsof Fiber, which has been used to design fiber networks covering more than 65 million homes since 2011. In 2018 we launched Comsof Heat, planning and design software for district heating and cooling networks.
Make designs faster with our easy-to-use software. Get more reliable results thanks to our superior algorithms.
Contact
www.comsof.com.