District heating is considered an environmentally friendly, efficient and cost-effective way of providingheat to buildings but even so, the industry will be facing several challenges in the upcoming years. Acombination of higher operating costs, growing demand, competition from alternative heatingtechnologies, national and international climate and energy goals and the need for transparency towardscustomers places high requirements on many thermal energy suppliers. One path to try to meet many ofthe demands is to introduce heat load control in the shape of thermal inertia in buildings as a short-termthermal energy storage. Several pilot tests have been performed in the matter but no study regardinglarge scale implementation and effects on the network has been performed. Adding to this, severaldifferent thermal energy suppliers are developing similar technologies alongside each other but there iscurrently no documentation on different approaches on the matter.Stockholm Exergi, a thermal energy supplier in Stockholm, have just started a project regarding heatload control and wanted deeper understanding in the matter. The overall purpose of this thesis hastherefore been to evaluate how heat load control could be performed successfully by Stockholm Exergito continue to promote competitive and sustainable delivery of district heat. This was done throughanalysis of other heat load control projects which resulted in eight key performance indicators. Thesewere; revenue, costs, fuel mix, greenhouse gas emissions, customer satisfaction, energy demand,available capacity and peak load. The key performance indicators were used to evaluate one ongoingtest run of heat load control performed by Stockholm Exergi to determine the profitability of theapproach. The test consisted of a control period of three hours in four buildings. The base of the studyconsists of a literature study and interviews performed both internally and externally.From the data analysis it was concluded that the energy savings due to heat load control were between13-19% for the individual buildings. The average total energy saving compared the entire day was 15.8%and the average total energy saving during the control period was 57.3%. It could also be concluded thatthe average total available capacity for all four buildings due to heat load control was 410 kWhcorresponding to 20.34Wh/m2 floor area.With the current price agreements, it was found that customers could save 0.145% on their monthly billdue to this reduction. For Stockholm Exergi, cost savings took the shape of avoided fuel costs and thetotal average cost savings were during the control period 0.072% with heat pumps as marginalproduction. Due to lack of data it was not possible to calculate other costs. The avoided GHG emissionsdue to the reduction in generation was 3.4 kg CO2-equivalents. During the control, the indoortemperature was reduced by a maximum of 0.587⁰C but no residents in the test buildings complainedabout bad indoor conditions.It was concluded that the current method and process for heat load control at Stockholm Exergi showsimilar results as other heat load control projects. Even though it is too soon to know for certain, it wasalso found that it has the potential to be economically, socially and ecologically successful in large scale.The thesis also concluded a list of recommendations for the future development of the heat load controlproject within Stockholm Exergi that would contribute to increase the probability of a successfulimplementation.Lastly, it was found that Stockholm Exergi is in the forefront of the development of heat load controlon large scale and are therefore in a position of trial and error where caution is paramount. / Fjärrvärme anses vara ett miljövänligt, effektivt och ekonomiskt lönsamt sätt att tillhandahålla värmetill byggnader men fjärrvärmeindustrin kommer ändå att stå inför flera utmaningar under de kommandeåren. En kombination av högre driftskostnader, ökad efterfrågan, konkurrens från alternativauppvärmningstekniker, nationella och internationella klimat- och energimål samt behovet av öppenhetgentemot slutanvändarna ställer höga krav på många fjärrvärmeleverantörer. Ett sätt att försöka mötadessa krav är att införa värmelastkontroll i form av termisk tröghet i byggnader som en kortsiktigvärmeenergilagring i fjärrvärmenätet. Flera pilot tester har gjorts inom området men ingen studierörande storskalig implementering och effekter på nätverket har utförts. Vidare utvecklar flera olikafjärrvärmeleverantörer liknande tekniker parallellt med varandra, men det finns för närvarande ingendokumentation gällande de olika metoderna.Stockholm Exergi, en fjärrvärmeleverantör i Stockholm, har nyligen påbörjat ett projekt inomvärmelastkontroll och har önskat djupare förståelse inom ämnet. Det övergripande syftet med dennaavhandling har därför varit att utvärdera hur kontroll av värmelasten kan genomföras framgångsrikt avStockholms Exergi för att fortsätta främja konkurrenskraftig och hållbar leverans av fjärrvärme.Detta gjordes genom analys av andra projekt rörande värmelastkontroll vilket resulterade i åtta nyckeltal.Dessa var; vinster, kostnader, bränslemix, växthusgasutsläpp, kundnöjdhet, energibehov, tillgängligkapacitet och toppbelastning. Dessa användes för att utvärdera en pågående testkörning avvärmelastkontroll i Stockholms Exergis fjärrvärmenät för att bestämma lönsamheten med metoden.Testkörningen gjordes i fyra byggnader under en kontrollperiod på tre timmar. Avhandlingen hade singrund i en omfattande litteraturstudie och interna samt externa intervjuer.Från dataanalysen drogs slutsatsen att energibesparingen var mellan 13–19% för de enskildabyggnaderna. Den genomsnittliga totala energibesparingen jämfört hela dagen var 15,8% och dengenomsnittliga totala energibesparingen under kontrollperioden var 57,3%. Den genomsnittliga totalatillgängliga kapaciteten på grund av värmelastkontroll blev därigenom 410 kWh vilket motsvarade 20,34Wh/m2 golvyta.Med de nuvarande prisöverenskommelserna konstaterades det att kunderna kunde spara 0,145% på sinmånatliga faktura på grund av denna minskning. För Stockholm Exergi fanns kostnadsbesparingar iform av undvikna bränslekostnader för spetsproduktion. Den genomsnittliga besparingen för undviknabränslekostnader var under kontrollperioden 0,072% med värmepumpar som marginalproduktion. Ingaandra kostnader kunde beräknas på grund av begränsad data. De undvikna växthusgasutsläppen på grundav denna minskning var 3,4 kg CO2-ekvivalenter. Under kontrollen reducerades innertemperaturen somhögst med 0,587 °C men inga boende klagade över försämrade inomhusförhållanden.En slutsats var att den nuvarande metoden och processen för kontroll av värmelasten utförd avStockholms Exergi visar liknande resultat som andra projekt inom samma område. Det kunde ävenfastställas att det har god potential att vara ekonomiskt, socialt och ekologiskt framgångsrikt i stor skalai framtiden. Avhandlingen fastställde också en lista med rekommendationer för den framtidautvecklingen av värmelastkontroll inom Stockholms Exergi. Dessa rekommendationer ska bidra tillökad sannolikhet för en framgångsrik implementering.Slutligen konstaterades det att Stockholms Exergi ligger i spetsen för utvecklingen av värmelastkontrolli stor skala. Detta innebär att de är i en position där det gäller att försiktigt och långsamt prova sig fram.

District heating plays a major role in the Swedish energy system. It is deemed a renewable energy source and is the main provider for multi-family dwellings with 90 %. Although the district heating fuel mix consists of majority renewables, a share of 5 % is provided from fossil fuels. To reduce fossil fuel usage and eradicate CO2-emissions from the district heating system new solutions are sought after. In this project, the potential for shortterm thermal energy storage in buildings is investigated. This concept is referred to as customer flexibility. Demand flexibility is created in the district heating system (DHS) by varying the indoor temperature in 50 multi-family dwellings with maximum 1◦C, without jeopardizing the thermal comfort for the tenants. The flexible load makes it possible to store energy shortterm in the building’ envelope. Consequently, heat load curves are evened in production. This leads to a reduction of the peak load in the DHS. Peaks are associated with high costs and environmental impact. Therefore, the potential benefits of customer flexibility are reduced peak production, fuel costs, and CO2-emissions, depending on the fuel mix in the DHS. The project objective is to examine the techno-economic potential of customer flexibility in a specific DHS. The case study is made in a DHS owned by the company Vattenfall, located in the Stockholm area. To evaluate the potential benefits of implementing the concept, seven key performance indicators are chosen. They are peak power, peak fuel usage, produced volume, total fuel cost, fuel cost per produced MWh, climate footprint, and primary energy. Moreover, an in-house optimization model is used to simulate multiple scenarios of the district heating DHS. Different sets of assumptions about the available flexibility in the DHS and the thermal characteristics of the buildings are made. Customer flexibility is modeled as virtual heat storage that can be charged up or down depending on the speed and size of the available storage at a specific outdoor temperature. Simulation results give a maximum peak power reduction of 10.9 % and annual fuel cost reduction between 0.9-3.6 % depending on the scenario. The results found are comparable to values found in similar studies. However, the environmental key performance indicators generated an increase in CO2-emissions and primary energy compared to the baseline scenarios. The result would have looked different if fossil fuels were used in peak production instead of biofuels. The master thesis also aimed to validate assumptions and parameters made in the input data to the optimization model. This was achieved by using results attained from a pilot in the specific DHS. Therefore results generated from the simulations are deemed accurate and confirm that customer flexibility leads to reduced peak production and DHS optimization. / Se filen