Regionalised approach to heat pump allocations and its impact on LV network reinforcement requirements

Due to the strive to achieve clean energy and environmental goals, the energy sector is transitioning in the way energy is generated and utilized. Since heat pumps provide a versatile and energy-efficient way to provide space heating and hot water, there is an increase in the adoption and penetration at the customer premise. Large-scale deployment of heat pumps, causing an increase in load demand may pose a challenge to Distribution System Operators when integrating them within their networks. During network planning processes, consideration for the integration of future technologies needs to be incorporated such that necessary network reinforcements can be made timeously thereby ensuring the safe and reliable operation of the network. Ideally, by knowing the location (based on regionalization) of where the increase in penetration (based on future scenarios) is likely to occur, Distribution System Operators can identify and prioritise network reinforcement requirements. This paper showed that the regionalisation methodology can be used to forecast the allocation of domestic heat pumps within the electrical network to facilitate Distribution System Operators in the network planning process. Future scenarios (up to 2050) were implemented with the electrical network obtained from three large Distribution System Operators in Austria, with and without consideration of district heating prospective. These scenarios also investigated the impact of various degrees and acceleration of heat pumps adoption rates where an assessment of the impact on the network and network reinforcement requirements were provided.