The transition of district heating and electrical distribution grids from traditionally independent to actively coupled and operated networks is seen as an important step on the way to smart energy networks. This work presents a method that enables a detailed technical assessment of the operation of such coupled heat and power networks. It is based on a sequential coupling approach of a dynamic thermal hydraulic model for the district heating network and a quasi-static model for the electrical distribution network. Different use cases are highlighted where a local coupling of the networks with power-to-heat is supporting the transition to smart energy networks, i.e., lowering district heating supply temperatures, accommodating renewable energy sources in the power network and integrating low-temperature heat sources into the district heating network. All three use cases are implemented in example applications to showcase the versatility of the method. The results underline the presented method's ability to perform detailed technical assessments of coupled heat and power networks. (C) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.