This Excel Tool applies the results of the cluster and regression analysis of 797 natural gas load profiles and creates a generic load profile for a given application based on the methodology described in section 2.4 of the report "Reference applications for renewable heat". To adapt to a specific application, the user must select a wd and a wknd cluster. For this purpose, Figure 3 and Figure 4 can be used for orientation. Furthermore, the user should select the clusters answering the following questions:

• Which heat sinks are responsible for the largest part of the heat demand?
• Does the heat demand of these heat sinks depend on the ambient temperature?
• Do the selected wd and wknd clusters match the heat sink characteristics in terms of dependency on ambient temperature?
• Do the selected wd and wknd clusters logically match? (It is unlikely that an application will have a fundamentally different characteristic in its dependence on ambient temperature on weekdays than on weekends.

In addition to selecting the clusters, the user must enter a daily ambient temperature profile and the respective year. For all Saturdays and Sundays in the entered year, the wknd regressions are used and for all other days, the wd regressions are used to calculate the normalized daily heat demand. If the user additionally enters the sum of annual heat demand, the tool also calculates the absolute load profile.

There is a high degree of freedom and flexibility in the way to integrate renewable process heat in industrial processes.  Nearly in every industrial or commercial application various heat sinks can be found, which are suitable to be supplied by renewable heat, e.g. from solar thermal, heat pumps, biomass or others. But in contrast to conventional fossil fuel powered heating systems, most renewable heating technologies are more sensitive to the requirements defined by the specific demand of the industrial company. Fossil fuel-based systems benefit from their indifference to process temperatures in terms of energy efficiency, their flexibility with respect to part-load as well as on-off operation, and the fuel as a (unlimited) chemical storage. In contrast, the required temperature and the temporal course of the heat demand over the year determine whether a certain regenerative heat generator is technically feasible at all or at least significantly influence parameters like efficiency or coverage rate.