IDA Districts

IDA Districts is a desktop application developed by EQUA for the dynamic simulation of district heating and cooling systems. It enables users to model and analyse energy generation, storage, distribution networks and connected consumers as one integrated system.

With IDA Districts, users can investigate different energy supply strategies, evaluate component sizing, study network behaviour and assess the performance of complex district energy systems under dynamic operating conditions. This makes the software suitable for the planning, optimisation and analysis of district heating, district cooling and low-temperature networks.

To support an efficient workflow, IDA Districts can be used together with external geospatial tools. Spatial input data, such as network layouts, buildings, streets and system components, is typically prepared and managed in QGIS, while the dynamic simulation itself is carried out in IDA Districts.

For this purpose, EQUA provides the Districts Modeler as a plugin for QGIS. The Districts Modeler supports the preparation, management and visualisation of district energy system data and enables the communication between QGIS and IDA Districts. It acts as the interface between the geospatial model in QGIS and the dynamic simulation environment in IDA Districts.

Simulation results can then be visualised and analysed using geospatial data workflows.

QGIS and PostgreSQL/PostGIS are independent open-source software projects. They are not developed or distributed by EQUA. They are used in the IDA Districts workflow because they provide powerful and widely established functionality for storing, managing, processing and visualising geospatial data.

IDA Districts is intended for engineers, energy planners, utilities, consultants and researchers involved in the design and analysis of district energy systems. It supports informed decision-making by helping users understand how buildings, networks, energy sources, storage systems and control strategies interact over time.

For more information about IDA Districts and Districts Modeler, see below, visit our website or our webinar (currently available only in German).

To get started with the Districts simulations, we recommend working through Guide 0 and then the Getting started guide after installation.