Municipal Network for Energy Efficiency

The Database: Energy planning is increasingly difficult as district heating companies in Lithuania pursue decentralization. The Lithuanian Energy Institute developed an information system that collects critical energy data for municipal and state officials who must make decisions on long-term energy planning. This database is comprised of three individual and interacting modules (TAUSA, TINKLAS and VARTOTOJAS) that provide information on supply- and demand-side energy use to all key stakeholders - from the Ministry of Economy to the consumer. The individual modules include:

Company Data: The TAUSA module was created for companies focused on heat production and supply using pipeline networks. TAUSA is capable of supporting district heating (DH) company managers in monitoring, forecasting and planning activities for a facility or department. TAUSA stores information on staff, production and technology; creates graphical, statistical reports on company activity; and accumulates data for prognosis of possible company activity scenarios.

Supply-side Data: The TINKLAS module gathers data from heat sources and facilitates simulation of the network on the basis of heat demand, calculates overall heat losses, and identifies the weakest points in the network. This way, the module can identify parts of the heating infrastructure where energy losses are greatest so users can prioritize the areas that need to be rehabilitated. This is particularly important for heating utilities that do not have the resources to rehabilitate the whole system but can "pick and choose" investments in key areas (substations, heat stations, supply/distribution pipes).

Demand-side Data: The VARTOTOJAS module, currently installed in four cities, collects information on actual heat consumption and analyzes heat demand in separate buildings with respect to the season, climate conditions, and structure of the building stock. A unified code system of data facilitates identification of consumers and analysis of DH efficiency in individual cities.

Module Interface: The Lithuanian DH Association created the information module EKONOMIKA, which will tie together the databases of individual DH companies to a unified system at the Association level. EKONOMIKA will support the Ministry of Economy in the process of forming national energy strategies and planning.

Economic Indices: A database of Lithuania's economic indices will be created separately, containing historical data and forecasts for inflation of local and foreign currencies, growth of GDP, country fuel and energy balance, fuel and energy prices and other important macroeconomic data. The data will be incorporated in general information system in nearest future.

For more information, please contact Vaclovas Kveselis.