Abstract
In 2018, the revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) included for the first time the application of a smart readiness indicator (SRI). Based on the fact that load shifting in and across buildings plays an increasingly important role to improve efficiency and alleviate the integration of renewable energy systems, the SRI is also aimed at providing an indication of how well buildings can interact with the energy grids. With the clustering of buildings into larger entities, synergies related to the integration of renewable energy and load shifting can be efficiently exploited. However, current proposals for the SRI focus mainly on qualitative appraisals of the smartness of buildings and do not include the wider context of the districts. Quantitative approaches that can be easily applied at an early planning stage are still mostly missing. To optimize infrastructure decisions on a larger scale, a quantifiable perspective beyond the building level is necessary to evaluate and leverage the larger load shifting capacities. This article builds on a previously published methodology for smart buildings with the aim to provide a numerical model-based approach on the assessment of whole districts based on their overall energy storage capacity, load shifting potential and their ability to actively interact with the energy grids. It also delivers the equivalent CO2 savings potential compared to a non-interactive system. The methodology is applied to theoretical use cases for validation. The results highlight that the proposed quantitative model can provide a meaningful and objective assessment of the load shifting potentials of smart districts.
Highlights
At the end of 2019, the newly elected President of the European Commission published the European Green Deal [1], a roadmap for transforming the EU’s economy towards sustainability
The results show, that Scenario 4 can provide with a total number of 27 buildings based on a mix of the base case, Scenario 1 and 2 the highest amount of load shifting in kWh
In this study, based an expanded aims at providing coherent quantitative of whole districts on theirmethodology overall energy storage capacity,aload shifting potential, assessment their ability of whole districts based on their overall energy storage capacity, load shifting potential, their ability to actively interact with the energy grids and the resulting CO2 emission savings compared to a to actively interact with the grids and the resulting
Summary
At the end of 2019, the newly elected President of the European Commission published the European Green Deal [1], a roadmap for transforming the EU’s economy towards sustainability. The de-carbonization of the energy sector, as well as ensuring that buildings become more energy efficient, is amongst the key actions in this long-term strategy. The subsequent proposal for the first European Climate Law [2] aims to ensure that all EU policies contribute to the European Green Deal and that all sectors of the economy and society will play their part. Energies 2020, 13, 3507 the construction and use of buildings [3,4] and the European building sector being responsible for an estimated 39% of final energy consumption [5] it is evident, that any future oriented government must include buildings and their associated infrastructure at the core of its roadmaps. Resilient urban development sets a particular focus on concepts for sustainable, efficient, and green districts [17]. In addition to larger urban or regional networks, small-scale infrastructure, such as district heating or cooling networks, can be included at this scale
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