PhD Thesis - Energy Systems Research Unit - University of Strathclyde

4 A Procedure for Demand and Supply Matching
A flexible and generic decision support framework is required through which
the design of sustainable energy systems for the supply of electricity, heat, hot
water and transportation fuel may be evaluated. This will be a valuable decision
making tool for the design of integrated energy systems that include intermittent
renewable energy supplies. This chapter discusses the requirements of such a
system, and the developments that have been made to an existing software
package, MERIT, in order to achieve this.
The previous chapters have shown that the following issues must be considered
in order to create an effective demand and supply matching procedure that can
analyse the total energy requirements of a given area: -
• The procedure must be flexible and generic, allowing small and medium
sized areas in any location and climate, with different demand needs and
supply possibilities to be analysed.
• The temporal matching of supply and demand is required in order to
analyse variations throughout the day and between seasons.
• Demands for electricity, heat, hot water and transport must be able to be
considered.
• Intermittent supplies, and the range of alternative transportation fuels
and vehicles, alternatively fuelled technologies for CHP generation, heat
storage and production technologies, other uses for excess electricity,
and methods for producing fuels from waste and biomass sources must
be available for consideration (as discussed in Chapter 2).
• The procedure must aid decisions about the best mix, type and sizing of
all technologies and processes being considered, and about the amount of
fuel or other storage required as appropriate. Informed decisions can
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