🏭 Danfoss Heat Utility System

A C# application that optimises heat production across 4 assets using Google OR-Tools,
minimising cost while satisfying demand — built in collaboration with Danfoss.
BSc Software Engineering · SEP2 Semester Project

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📋 About the Project

The Danfoss Heat Utility System (HUS) is a semester project developed in collaboration with Danfoss, a global leader in engineering solutions for heating, cooling, and energy management.

The system solves a real operational problem in district heating: given 4 heating assets with different capacities and running costs, and a time-varying heat demand and electricity price curve, determine the optimal production schedule that meets demand at minimum cost.

This is modelled as a linear programming / mixed-integer optimisation problem and solved with Google OR-Tools.

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⚙️ How the Optimisation Works

The system ingests:

• Heat demand forecast (MWh per time slot)
• Electricity spot prices (DKK/MWh, e.g. from Nord Pool)
• Asset specifications — capacity (MW), production cost functions, on/off constraints

It then solves for the optimal dispatch schedule: how much heat each asset should produce in each time slot to satisfy demand while minimising total operating cost.

Minimise:   Σ (cost_i × output_i)      for each asset i, each time slot t
Subject to: Σ output_i  ≥  demand_t    (demand always met)
            0 ≤ output_i ≤ capacity_i   (physical limits)

The result is a production plan that avoids running expensive assets when demand or price is low, and prioritises cheaper assets at peak times.

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✨ Features

• Optimisation engine — Google OR-Tools LP/MIP solver dispatching across 4 heating units
• Price-aware scheduling — responds to electricity spot price signals to minimise cost
• Demand satisfaction constraint — total production always meets or exceeds required heat output
• Automated testing — HUS.Tests project validates the optimisation logic and constraint handling
• CI pipeline — GitHub Actions validates every commit; the build must pass before merge

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🛠️ Technical Stack

Component	Technology
Language	C# (.NET)
Optimisation	Google OR-Tools (linear/mixed-integer programming)
Architecture	Layered — domain models, solver logic, presentation
Testing	Unit + integration tests via HUS.Tests
CI/CD	GitHub Actions (.github/workflows)

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📁 Project Structure

Danfoss-Heat-Utility-System/
├── HUS/               # Core application — asset models, solver, scheduler, UI
├── HUS.Tests/         # Unit and integration tests
└── .github/workflows/ # CI pipeline

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🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites: .NET SDK 6.0+, Visual Studio or JetBrains Rider

git clone https://github.com/aIex-personal/Danfoss-Heat-Utility-System.git

dotnet build    # restore and build
dotnet test     # run the test suite

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🔄 Development Workflow

This project followed a professional Git workflow enforced by CI:

• Every feature developed on its own branch, created directly from the GitHub issue
• Pull requests required a passing CI pipeline before merge
• Commits follow a consistent convention: ADDED [...] functionality / UPDATED [...] functionality
• Branch always synced from main before starting new work

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🤝 Team & Context

Group project following agile practices with peer code review on all pull requests, built to the professional standards expected for an industry-partnered semester project with Danfoss.