KEY FIGURES TO EDUCATE THE DISTRICT HEATING CUSTOMER

Abstract

The basis for this thesis work is derived from two sources, a new Swedish District Heating (DH) law and the internal operation of Landskrona Energi AB (LEAB). The law states that a DH company should present their customers with a comparison of relevant key figures to customers with similar user profiles. LEAB communicates pricing changes, a cost estimation for the coming year and newly calculated key figures with their industry customers yearly with a send out referred to as the customer budget. This document is to be renewed by this thesis, increasing customer value and promoting better communication between LEAB and their customers.
To enable this, a software model will be developed where individual customers, cus- tomer segments or the entire customer base can be analysed. Beyond this, the software model will be used to calculate different key figures throughout the thesis work. As the framework for the grouping and comparison profiles are yet to be determined, a suggestion will be made for how the industry can comply.
The results from this thesis is what we believe to be best practise for how to comply with the new Swedish DH law, to give the customers a comparison of relevant key figures against similar customers. A new customer budget is proposed where new and previously standardized key figures are individually estimated and explained. The basis for this customer grouping and labeling are the newly developed key figures. The possibilities with access to only basic consumption data is explored through which innovative methods for heat load normalization and hot tap water estimation, amongst others, are developed.
This has been carried out with limited programming knowledge in Python, with a laptop. The most relevant code has been appended to the thesis to help bridge the gap between software developers and the DH industry. With their resources and wide competence, the DH industry has the possibility to make and provide deeper analyses to their customers, benefiting both sides.

Popular Abstract (Swedish)

Underlaget fo ̈r detta examensarbete ha ̈rstammar fr ̊an tv ̊a platser, ett nytt tilla ̈gg till Fja ̈rrva ̈rmelagen och Landskrona Energi AB’s (LEAB’s) o ̈nskan om en ba ̈ttre kund- kommunikation. Lagen anger att ett fja ̈rrva ̈rmefo ̈retag ska fo ̈rse sina kunder med en ja ̈mfo ̈ring av sina nyckeltal mot kunder med liknande konsumptionsprofil. LEAB kom- muniserar prisfo ̈ra ̈ndringar och uppdaterade nyckeltal ̊arligen till sina industrikunder igenom ett utskick bena ̈mnt kundbudgeten. Detta dokument fo ̈rnyas under arbetets g ̊ang fo ̈r att o ̈ka kundnytta och fra ̈mja ba ̈ttre kommunikation mellan LEAB och deras kunder.
Fo ̈r att mo ̈jliggo ̈ra detta utvecklas mjukvara som kan modellera antingen individu- ella kunder, kundsegment eller hela kundbasen. Uto ̈ver detta s ̊a kommer mjukvaran anva ̈ndas fo ̈r att ta fram nya nyckeltal. D ̊a en tydlig mall fo ̈r hur kunder ska grupperas och ja ̈mfo ̈ras inte har blivit satt a ̈n s ̊a kommer fo ̈rslag ges p ̊a hur industrin kan fo ̈lja det nya regelverket.
Resultatet av detta arbete a ̈r enligt mig ba ̈sta praxis fo ̈r hur den nya fja ̈rrva ̈rmelagen kan fo ̈ljas fo ̈r att ge kunder en ja ̈mfo ̈relse av relevanta nyckeltal mot liknande kunder. En ny kundbudget fo ̈resl ̊as da ̈r nya och tidigare generaliserade nyckeltal bera ̈knas individuellt och fo ̈rklaras. Underlaget fo ̈r b ̊ade grupperingen och graderingen a ̈r de nya nyckeltalen. Mo ̈jligheterna med enbart tillg ̊ang till basal fo ̈rbrukningsdata underso ̈ks och da ̈rigenom utvecklas innovativa metoder fo ̈r att normalisera va ̈rmeanva ̈ndning och fo ̈r att uppskatta tappvarmvatten.
Detta har gjorts mo ̈jligt med begra ̈nsade kunnskaper inom programmering i Python, p ̊a en ba ̈rbar dator. Den mest relevanta koden har bifogats fo ̈r att kunna minska glappet mellan mjukvaruutvecklare och fja ̈rrva ̈rmefo ̈retagen. Med sina resurser och breda kompetens har de mo ̈jlighet att utveckla djupare analyser fo ̈r kunderna, vilket fra ̈mjar b ̊ada sidor.

• author: Nuorimaa, Alexander
• supervisor: Kerstin Sernhed; Axel Johansson
• organization: Department of Energy Sciences
• alternative title: EXPLORING NEW POSSIBILITIES OF BASIC DISTRICT HEATING DATA
• course: MVKM01 20241
• year: 2024
• type: H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
• subject: Technology and Engineering
• keywords: District Heating, Customer communication, Grid analysis, Customer analysis, Customer grouping, Customer labelling
• report number: LUTMDN/TMHP-24/5572-SE
• ISSN: 0282-1990
• language: English
• id: 9165102
• date added to LUP: 2024-06-19 09:18:03
• date last changed: 2024-06-19 09:18:03