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EPOS-Plan energy planning software

EPOS-Plan is planning software for the integrated design of heating and power supply systems. The name stands for Energy, Planning, Optimisation and Simulation – the four tasks the program brings together. It is developed, maintained and distributed by INEKON – Intelligente Energiekonzepte in Stuttgart, Germany.

One model for the entire energy system

The program covers the heat demand of buildings, domestic hot water and industrial processes as well as electricity demand, the generation technology from heat pumps, boilers, CHP units and solar thermal collectors through to photovoltaics, and both thermal and electrical storage. On this basis EPOS-Plan simulates a complete year: 8,760 hourly values on the heat side and 35,040 quarter-hourly values on the electricity side. Only this time resolution shows how a planned plant actually behaves in operation – how large the share of the back-up heater really is in February, how many operating hours a generator achieves and from which storage size self-consumption no longer rises appreciably.

For new buildings, existing stock and refurbishment

Thanks to the integrated heat demand calculation the program suits new buildings as well as refurbishment projects. Building types can be taken from an extensive catalogue by use and construction period and adapted to the specific object with a few entries. Where consumption data are available instead of areas, demand can be derived from the annual consumption of oil, gas or other fuels – the annual profile remains physically based while the annual total matches the bill. Existing solar thermal or photovoltaic systems are taken into account just like planned extensions.

Manufacturer data instead of blanket assumptions

Extensive catalogues with manufacturer data are available for heat pumps, boilers, CHP modules, solar collectors, photovoltaic modules and storage. Heat pumps are calculated with the complete performance map: for the selected flow temperature, heat output and coefficient of performance are stored for every source temperature and interpolated hour by hour. Own data sets can be created at any time, manufacturer data imported according to VDI 3805 and updated data sets downloaded from our server. Climate data are retrieved by the program itself: entering the place name is enough – the data set is downloaded and converted to the four main orientations.

Comparing and assessing variants

The generators work in a freely configurable cascade; each covers as much demand as its performance map, operating limits and storage state allow. Results include coverage per generator, bivalence point, full-load hours, annual utilisation ratios, fuel consumption, emissions, self-consumption ratio, self-sufficiency and CO₂ savings – as key figures, annual profiles, load duration curves and tables. All time series can be exported as CSV files. On this basis investment, operating and energy costs are recorded so that the technical and the economic assessment rest on the same data.

Easy to use

A wizard guides you through new projects and only shows the steps actually needed; the start page indicates for every building block whether data are available. Tooltips at the input fields link to the matching chapter of the online documentation, and a help assistant answers questions in the context of the current program area. EPOS-Plan is a standalone Windows application for Windows 10 and 11, does not require Excel and is available in German and English.

A complete overview is given under Features, operation is described in the Documentation, and worked application cases are collected under Examples.