I am a PhD fellow under the supervision of Prof. De Paepe of the ATHT research group (part of STFES) of the Ghent University and Prof. T' Jollyn of the EMIB research group of the University of Antwerp. In my research I investigate the potential of thermal energy storage systems in district heating networks. In district heating networks, heat is supplied to residential buildings with a (hot) water piping network. With the use of renewable sources of heat such as waste heat or geothermal heat, the energy use in buildings can be decarbonized and made more efficient. The addition of thermal energy storage systems can introduce more flexibility in the network. In order to develop an optimization tool for sizing, positioning and control of these thermal storage systems, I develop models in Dymola (Modelica) for system simulations. Besides the research in the context of my PhD, I am also involved in the education activities of the STFES research group. I teach the project classes of the courses "Heating, Ventilation, Air-conditioning and Refrigeration" and "Thermal energy: duurzame toepassingen" and supervise master thesis students.