Vieth, JonathanJonathanViethWestphal, JanJanWestphalSpeerforck, ArneArneSpeerforck2026-01-052026-01-052025-1020th Conference on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems, SDEWES 2025https://hdl.handle.net/11420/60529The use of carbon neutral heat sources such as industrial waste heat or large-scale heat pumps requires the existence of district heating networks (DHNs). The automated planning of new DHNs is a task frequently addressed in the scientific literature. Automated planning often uses the street network and geographic information system tools. Based on the potential routes for DHNs defined by the street network, the optimal DHN topology can be found using e.g. shortest path algorithms or a mixed-integer programming approach. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, all available approaches verify their algorithms with use cases ranging in size from villages to small cities. In addition, DHNs already exist in almost all metropolitan areas in Central Europe. The main challenge in metropolitan areas is to find the optimal DHN expansion to connect new consumers to the already existing DHN. The DHN expansion may lead to overloading of existing DHN pipes or producers, which has to be considered in the planning process. Furthermore, for larger DHNs with more than one producer, the proper operation of the DHN must be ensured even if an outtake occurs at one of the producers. Therefore, resilience has to be considered in the planning process. In this work, we present an algorithm for automated and optimal expansion planning of DHNs. The algorithm guarantees that the DHN expansion does not lead to overloads in the existing or in the added DHN pipes. In addition, a possible outtake of one producer is considered in the planning process, resulting in a resilient DHN. The algorithm is tested using a case study with more than 3000 consumers and ten generation units.enhttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/district heating networkdistrict heating network planningoptimizationenergy system planningexpansion planningresilienceresilient expansion planningSocial Sciences::333: Economics of Land and Energy::333.7: Natural Resources, Energy and EnvironmentTechnology::620: EngineeringConference Paper not in Proceedingshttps://www.dubrovnik2025.sdewes.org/programmeConference Paper