As a district heating operator, your energy performance is a key issue for your company.
Your steam output fluctuates according to demand and seasonality. You may need to supplement your steam with steam from another production site. Optimising the consumption of this steam is a challenge.
Choose the most effective solution to measure your steam production, maximize your energy efficiency and increase your profitability.
Summarize this article with :
For several years now, the irremediable depletion of fossil fuels and the urgent need to slow down global warming have led us to rethink the energy mix.
District heating, also known as heating and cooling networks, is part of this ecological transition, saving over 6 million tonnes of CO2 in France every year.
By 2035 in France, the aim is to triple the number of households connected to heating networks.
To meet this demand, district heating operators are expanding their networks to optimize the energy performance of their sites, while offering their customers attractive prices.
A heat networks operator provides heating to customers in Paris, France, through a system of steam boilers.The flow of steam fluctuates according to customer demand and seasonality.
Heating demand is high in winter and low in summer.
The metering application is measuring steam flow at 202°C produced by gas and biomass boilers.
During boiler shutdowns or power shortages, steam is supplied from another production site.
This requires bi-directional measurement to measure steam in both directions over wide flow ranges.
In order to save energy, the heating operator wants to minimise the pressure losses of the future meters.
Difficult flow applications require close collaboration between the meter manufacturer and the end-user to fully understand the process operating conditions, noise, and vibration of the surrounding machinery.
The V-Cone® differential pressure flow meter was chosen for this project becauseno straight lengths were required. Optimized for confined spaces, the V-Cone® flow meter was easily integrated into the existing configuration, eliminating the need for piping modifications. Orifice plates and vortex flow meters could have measured steam flow in this situation. However, the straight length requirements of orifice plates would have required modifications and additional pipe lengths.
The wide flow range of the application would have required two vortex flow meters. Both solutions would have resulted in significant additional pressure losses and costs that would have been unacceptable to the heating district operator.
V-Cone® technology claims a rangeability of 10:1. In this application, four differential pressure transmitters were used to accurately measure the desired flow range (20:1) in both directions.
The Fuji Electric solution also included pressure measurement, temperature measurement, box-mounted energy flow computers cabinets, and accessories: condensate pots and isolation valves.
Overall, the V-Cone® flow meter proved to be an ideal choice for accurate measurement over a wide range of bi-directional flow.
Since 2016, V-Cone® flow measurement has been integrated into the ISO5167-5 standard, enabling it to be used for custody transfer metering.
The versatility of the V-Cone® flow meter for a wide range of flow and fluid conditions, together with its customizability, make it a viable and durable solution for many new or retrofit flow measurement applications.
This measurement also has the advantage of being able to be calibrated on site without having to be dismantled and without stopping steam production.
After the success of this challenging measurement, the heating operator decided to install similar measurement devices for hot condensate returns.
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