| Title | Integrating Medium-Deep Borehole Thermal Energy Storage into a University District Heating Network: Progress from the PUSH-IT Project at TU Darmstadt |
|---|---|
| Authors | Hung Pham, Matthias Krusemark, Markus Schedel, Max Ohagen, Lukas Seib, Ingo Sass |
| Year | 2026 |
| Conference | World Geothermal Congress |
| Keywords | |
| Abstract | Medium-Deep Borehole Thermal Energy Storage (MD-BTES) systems offer a promising path towards large-scale seasonal thermal energy storage, crucial for decarbonizing heating by integrating renewable heat sources. As part of the preceding SKEWS project, three medium-deep boreholes, each 750m deep, were drilled at TU Darmstadt's Lichtwiese Campus between 2022 and 2023. The EU-funded PUSH-IT project is now focused on integrating these MD-BTES boreholes into the university's district heating network. The integration process involves connecting the boreholes via a hydraulic container and a connection pipeline to the district heating network, complemented by a heat pump. The planned operation includes charging the storage from the network during summer surplus periods and discharging heat to the network's return line in winter, utilising the heat pump to raise the temperature. Although the initial three boreholes provide limited capacity relative to the network demand, the project explores future expansion scenarios involving 19 or 37 boreholes. A key aspect of the grid integration is the technical evaluation of the connection pipeline infrastructure, benchmarking between CoSimulation model outputs and real monitoring data obtained during charging and discharging period. This presentation provides an update on the progress of connecting this innovative seasonal heat storage demonstrator to the district heating grid. |