Low‑carbon coordinated operation of data centers and district heating network with heating recovery

This paper proposes a low-carbon coordinated operation method of data centers (DCs) and district heating network (DHN) with heating recovery. First, the carbon emission flow (CEF) theory is used to measure the carbon emissions associated with the electricity and heat exchange between the distribution network (DN), DCs, and DHN. A detailed analysis of the CEF within DCs is conducted, and a model for calculating the corresponding carbon intensity (CI) of the electricity and heat output from the DCs is proposed. Based on this, the carbon emissions of each entity during the coordinated operation of DCs and DHN can be quantified. Subsequently, a low-carbon coordinated operation framework for DCs and DHN is proposed. In this framework, the operators of DCs and DHN aim to minimize their integrated energy and carbon costs based on the distribution locational marginal price and CI of DN nodes. DN, DCs, and DHN iteratively develop their operation plans, exchanging only the results of the boundary variables. Finally, a customized bisection-based algorithm, including an inner loop and an outer loop, is developed to address the oscillation problem and ensure the convergence of the iterative process. In case studies, the adapted IEEE 33-bus DN, the 23-node DHN, and three DCs are used for analysis, and the results demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed method.