Integrated District Heating System for the San Cataldo Area (Pisa, Italy)

Abstract

Ages, which is the Company in charge for the natural gas distribution in the town of Pisa and surroundings municipalities, is interested in co-operating with Enel for the S.Cataldo project. Enel shall be responsible for the drilling of the production and reinjection geothermal wells and shall supply the thermal demand of a large research centre, belonging to CNR (National Research Council), by means of a direct utilization (heat exchanger) of the geothermal fluid wellhead. The temperature of the geothermal fluid downstream the CNR plant is still high enough for a further utilization of the fluid itself and consequently Ages shall receive the fluid from Enel for feeding a district heating system with the geothermal heat, by means of large heat pumps. The system is completed with a cogeneration plant, which shall supply the electricity required for feeding the needs of the heat pumps and of the CNR research centre; the cogeneration plant shall integrate the heat extracted from the geothermal source and delivered to the distribution system and, in summer, will also give a contribution to the cooling load of the research centre by the utilization of absorption units.