District heating systems modeling: A gamification approach

Abstract

District heating (DH) is supposed to largely contribute to achievement of the climate goals in the near future. However, public awareness, understanding and acceptance of the technology are required. At the same time, gamification has been identified as a viable teaching and learning method in higher education, which might be also appealing to non-professionals and might bridge their knowledge gap in DH. Since literature review has shown that no game about DH exists, the concept of a serious game about a heat supply system and its transformation from a fossil fuel-based system to a renewable-based one is introduced in this work. The first results of the game development are presented, namely, initial conditions, gameplay, the model of heating sector and the model of the DH transformation. The game will allow players to explore interdependencies between technical, economic, ecological and sociopolitical aspects as well as among different stakeholders (producers, consumers, government) and develop strategies for a successful transformation. The flexibility of different transformation scenarios and the influence of boundary conditions on the transformation can be analyzed after playing the game multiple times.

Keywords

• Gamification
• Serious games
• District heating
• Energy transition
• Decarbonization
• Public awareness