An Agent-Based Approach to Monitoring and Control of District Heating Systems

The aim is to improve the monitoring and control of district heating systems through the use of agent technology. In order to increase the knowledge about the current and future state in a district heating system at the producer side, each substation is equipped with an agent that makes predictions of future consumption and monitors current consumption. The contributions to the consumers, will be higher quality of service, e.g., better ways to deal with major shortages of heat water, which is facilitated by the introduction of redistribution agents, and lower costs since less energy is needed for the heat production. Current substations are purely reactive devices and have no communication capabilities. Thus, they are restricted to making local decisions without taking into account the global situation. However, a new type of "open" substation has been developed which makes the suggested agent-based approach possible.