Bachelor Thesis: Review of Input Data Availability for District Heating Transformation Planning

AEE INTEC

AEE – Institute for Sustainable Technologies (AEE INTEC) is a non-university research institute founded in 1988. AEE INTEC currently employs around 90 people from more than fifteen nations and continuously awards dissertations, master’s theses and internships. AEE INTEC works in the fields of „Buildings“, „Cities and Networks“, „Technology Development“ and „Industrial Systems“ on fundamental and application-oriented research in national and international R&D projects in cooperation with universities, colleges, other research institutions and industry.

Research Project

The ENABLE DHC project supports frontrunner cities in transitioning their heating and cooling systems into climate-neutral supply. A key challenge in this transformation process is the availability and quality of technical and spatial data needed for planning and decision-making. Within Task T3.1, a practical method is needed to quickly assess the availability of required data for transformation planning.

Outline of the Bachelor Thesis

The goal of this thesis is to develop and apply a simplified checklist for assessing whether key data inputs (e.g., network layout, thermal demand, building types) are available in selected city cases. The student will:

• Review key data needs from transformation planning tools and guidelines,
• Develop a structured checklist with categories and scoring,
• Apply the checklist to ENABLE DHC case study cities using existing factsheets and project inputs,
• Summarize typical data gaps and propose how they can be addressed through assumptions or proxies.

This checklist will help project partners and municipalities to assess planning readiness and define next steps.

We expect…

• Interest renewable heat technologies and energy system evaluation
• Good command of Excel
• Familiarity with Python is considered an asset
• A careful and structured working style
• Background in mechanical engineering, energy engineering, or a related field

We offer…

• Paid Bachelor thesis, embedded in a current European research project
• Intensive support from experienced researchers in the field of thermal energy technologies
• Planned duration: 3 months, Start: from now on, Place of realization: Gleisdorf, Austria

Contact for content-related questions and application to: