Master’s thesis from Politecnico di Milano awarded at the 2025 DHC Student Awards.
The master’s thesis by Sajedeh Roustaei, carried out at the Department of Energy of Politecnico di Milano, was awarded at the 2025 DHC Student Awards during the IEA DHC Conference in Genk (Belgium), in the Bachelor’s & Master’s students category. The work, entitled “Data-driven approach for diagnosing inefficiencies and optimizing district heating networks,” proposes an innovative and scalable approach to improving the efficiency of district heating networks through data analysis.
The research addresses the crucial issue of reducing return temperature in networks, a key factor in enhancing their performance. By using time-series clustering techniques and substation ranking methods, the thesis identifies the main causes of inefficiency and suggests targeted interventions. The results show a potential reduction in the average return temperature from 62°C to about 56°C. The study also analyzes users’ consumption profiles, identifying nine typologies, and develops a method for imputing missing data to support network planning. The award confirms Politecnico di Milano’s leading role in advanced research on energy systems.
