District heating and cooling networks are a key infrastructure to decarbonise the heating and cooling sector. Besides the design of new networks according to the principles of the 4th and 5th generation, operational aspects may significantly contribute to improve the efficiency of existing networks from both economic and environmental standpoints. This article is the second step of a work that aims to exploit the flexibility of existing networks and improve their economic and environmental performance, using the district heating network of Verona as a case study. In particular, the first part of the research demonstrated through numerical simulations that the thermal inertia of the water contained in the pipes can be used to shift the heat production of the generators over time by acting on the flow rate circulating in the network. This article shifts the focus from the heat distribution side to the heat supply. A model predictive control strategy was formulated as a MILP optimization problem to schedule the heat supply of the cogeneration plants, heat pump and gas boilers as a function of heat load, waste heat production and electricity price forecasts. Computer simulations of considered district heating network were carried out executing the optimization with a rolling-horizon scheme over two typical weeks. Results show that the proposed look-ahead control achieves a reduction in the operational costs of about 12.5% and 5.8%, respectively in a middle season and a winter representative week. Increasing the flexibility of the system with a centralized heat storage tank connected to the CHP and HP units, these percentage rise to respectively 20% and 6.3%. In the warmest periods, when the total installed power of the CHP and HP plants is sufficient to supply the entire heat demand during the peak, and the modulation of these plants has a higher impact, the cost reduction related to the additional thermal energy storage is more relevant.

区域供热和制冷网络是供热和制冷行业脱碳的关键基础设施。除了根据第 4 代和第 5 代的原则设计新网络外，从经济和环境的角度来看，运营方面可能会大大有助于提高现有网络的效率。本文是一项旨在利用现有网络的灵活性并改善其经济和环境绩效的工作的第二步，以维罗纳的区域供热网络为案例研究。特别是，研究的第一部分通过数值模拟表明，管道中所含水的热惯性可用于通过作用于网络中循环的流速来随着时间的推移改变发电机的热量产生。本文将重点从热分布侧转移到供热侧。模型预测控制策略被制定为 MILP 优化问题，以根据热负荷、废热产生和电价预测来安排热电联产厂、热泵和燃气锅炉的供热。对所考虑的区域供热网络进行了计算机模拟，在典型的两周内使用滚动水平方案执行优化。结果表明，拟议的超前控制在中部季节和冬季代表周分别降低了约12.5％和5.8％的运营成本。通过连接到 CHP 和 HP 装置的中央储热罐提高系统的灵活性，这些百分比分别上升到 20% 和 6.3%。