Economic and environmental comparison of a centralized and a decentralized heating production for a district heating network implementation

District heating networks seem to be a promising solution for heating delivery by using a centralized production unit instead of local gas boilers or heat pumps in each house. The use of several available heat sources, like waste incinerators for example, enables to reduce global primary energy consumption and to have a better control on pollutants emissions and greenhouse gases emissions than with a local heating production. The main drawback of district heating networks is the consequent initial investment cost for pipes and substations. It is thus interesting to achieve a fair comparison between a centralized heating production unit including a district heating network and a decentralized one with heating units in each house. The comparison is based on the IEA EBC Annex 60 case study made up of a small neighborhood of 24 dwellings combined with a greenhouse characterized by specific energy consumption profiles. For the centralized heating production, a waste incinerator and a gas boiler are considered as heating sources while gas boilers or heat pumps are taken into account for a decentralized heating production. In both cases, an economic and environmental study is achieved to determine the optimal scenario between a centralized and a decentralized heating production.