The impact of urban district composition on storage technology reliance: trade-offs between thermal storage, batteries, and power-to-hydrogen

The composition of urban districts - residential, commercial, or ‘mixed’ topologies - can have drastically different energy load profiles and peak demands, leading to altered optimal District Multi-Energy System (D-MES) designs. Although demand-influenced differences in D-MES designs are generally understood, there is a research gap of how the interplay of various storage technologies differs between topologies. In this paper, we investigate the extent of D-MES reliance on storage technologies over various district topologies in central Europe. The core of this analysis relies on a multi-objective MILP optimization model utilized in an uncertainty analysis framework. Optimal D-MES results show distributions of designs which vary depending on uncertain parameters. For district energy planners, main findings show that mixed districts are the most promising case for D-MES planning due to a diversified demand type balance leading to lower costs and emissions. Residential districts typified by high peaks demonstrate larger storage requirements. All three storage technologies are key components of low emissions D-MES, enabling increased sector-coupling and renewable self-consumption. Such districts utilize power-to-hydrogen seasonally while batteries are relied upon for short-term load management. The most influential parameters for power-to-hydrogen installation are mainly attributed to competing technologies on the electric (batteries) and thermal (ASHPs) sectors.