Kostevsek A., Cizelj L., Petek J., Cucek L., Varbanov P., Klemes J., Pivec A., 2013, Use of Renewables in Rural Municipalities’ Integrated Energy Systems, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 35, 895-900.
The current contribution builds upon the locally-integrated energy sectors (LIES) concept. The LIES concept (Perry et al., 2008) extended the TS methodology (Dhole and Linnhoff, 1993) developed initially for industrial complexes mainly. LIES (Varbanov and Klemeš, 2011) offer a further extension of Total Site (TS) concept to accommodate collaboration between industry and local communities. This concept can be especially attractive for the municipalities abundant with natural resources. Recent research leads towards integration of energy users and energy producers over larger geographical area up to regional scale. The design optimisation is investigated for local and regional energy supply at municipal and higher level to accelerate the use of renewable resources within rural municipalities. The demand levels and patterns of the involved energy user types are described, followed by the selection of promising renewable and fossil resources. The variability of renewables makes it necessary to accommodate varying availability by optimal demand side management, appropriate clustering of energy sources and sinks, as well as using energy storage.
