| Abstract |
Pricing is one of the important tasks in the feasibility studies of geothermal district heating investments. It involves many variables that make the task difficult. There are three different applications for billing of energy consumption in geothermal district heating applications throughout the world: energy metering, volume metering, and flat rate pricing. In flat rate pricing, energy is invoiced according to the heated area or volume. If simplicity in marketing or billing is the main consideration, the flat rate pricing could be preferred in a district heating investment. Energy metering or volume metering can be applied when energy saving is aimed. Energy metering involves the measurement of volumetric flow rate of water circulated in energy distribution network and the temperatures of water entering and leaving to the heat exchanger installed at the basement of each building. However, in volume metering, only water flow rate is measured. In this study, flat rate pricing which is applied in Balcova - Narlidere Geothermal District Heating System (BNGDHS) is discussed. First, it is investigated that whether the energy utilization price level in 2004 is appropriate in flat pricing method. It is found that the investment is not feasible with 2004 prices. Then, price is suggested according to zero internal rate of return assumption for this investment. In addition to this, energy utilization price has been calculated with the new existing market price level of equipment for the very same investment. After estimation of required energy amount for a normally sized household, theoretical water flow rate to meet the heating requirement of household is calculated. By using energy price in GrÌmsnes geothermal district heating system and the theoretical water flow rate, the new flat price for the normally sized household in the BNGDHS is calculated. For the two sample buildings in the BNGDHS, energy is invoiced according to current prices in the BNGDHS, new flat price and unit volumetric flow rate price in GrÌmsnes geothermal district heating system, respectively. Finally, the studied energy utilization prices are compared. |