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2026 Vol.46, Issue 2

Research Article

Economic Analysis of a Heat Pump–Based Power-to-Heat System for District Heating

히트펌프 기반 Power-to-Heat 시스템의 지역난방 적용 경제성 분석

Byung-Ju Lim1
,
Sung-Hoon Cho2
,
Sie-Un Kwon3
,
Chang-Dae Park14*
임 병주1
,
조 성훈2
,
권 시은3
,
박 창대14*
1Principle Researcher, KIMM Institute of Carbon Neutral Energy Machinery, Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials
2Principle Engineer, KIMM Institute of Carbon Neutral Energy Machinery, Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials
3Student of Master Course, Mechanical Engineering, University of Science and Technology
4Professor, Mechanical Engineering, University of Science and Technology
1한국기계연구원 탄소중립기계연구소, 책임연구원
2한국기계연구원 탄소중립기계연구소, 책임기술원
3과학기술연합대학원대학교 융합기계시스템학과, 석사과정 학생
4과학기술연합대학원대학교 융합기계시스템학과, 교수
*Corresponding Author
20 April 2026. pp. 1-14
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Abstract

This study analyzes the economic feasibility of applying heat-pump-based power-to-heat (P2H) technology to domestic district heating systems. By exploiting time-of-use electricity price differentials, nighttime thermal storage operations were considered, and a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model was developed to jointly optimize the design and operation of heat pumps and thermal storage tanks in a district heating system serving 1,000 households. The optimization results indicate that a heat pump capacity of 2.42 MW and thermal storage capacity of 6.04 MWh constitute the optimal system design. The levelized cost of heat for the P2H system was calculated to be 82,227 KRW/MWh. This value was approximately 15.1% lower than the reference district heating tariff of 95,000 KRW/MWh, corresponding to an annual total cost reduction of approximately 13.4%. Seasonal operational analysis showed that the thermal storage tank had high utilization during spring and autumn, confirming that its operation is economically rational on an annual basis. The results of this study quantitatively demonstrate that heat pump–based P2H systems can achieve sufficient economic viability under the current domestic electricity pricing and district heating tariff structures and suggest that P2H represents a practical and effective option for the low-carbon transition of district heating systems.

Keywords
Power to heat
District heat
Optimization
Night-time thermal energy storage
Load shifting
Heat pump
키워드
전기열변환
지역난방
최적화
야간축열
부하이동
히트펌프
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Information
  • Publisher :Korean Solar Energy Society
  • Publisher(Ko) :한국태양에너지학회
  • Journal Title :Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
  • Journal Title(Ko) :한국태양에너지학회 논문집
  • Volume : 46
  • No :2
  • Pages :1-14
  • Received Date : 2026-01-04
  • Revised Date : 2026-02-18
  • Accepted Date : 2026-03-16
  • DOI :https://doi.org/10.7836/kses.2026.46.2.001
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