Abstract
Buildings are the largest urban energy consumers, but their impact can be largely cut back by improving efficiency. Policy-making plays a crucial role in harmonizing national and local incentive schemes. The authors analyse variables related to energy consumption, then propose a simulation model based on System Dynamics applied to a medium-sized Italian city. The model allows the testing of “what-if” scenarios and analysis of the results of implementing energy efficiency policies. Results stress the importance of a holistic view of urban energy processes. Simulation trends provide essential information for the city's future energy and carbon emission profiles, helping policymakers to achieve their goal.
Highlights
The problem of how to tackle increasing global energy consumption due to the rampant growth of the human population – mostly in the less developed countries [1] – is one of the main challenges facing mankind today
In order to Giancarlo Caponio, Vito Massaro, Giorgio Mossa and Giovanni Mummolo: 5 Strategic Energy Planning of Residential Buildings in a Smart City: A System Dynamics Approach calculate the CO2 emissions to be attributed to electricity consumption, a local emission factor for electricity is calculated by using the equation below (Equation 5): EFEt
The benefit-cost ratio, defined as the monetary quantification of CO2 avoided emissions, through the shadow price, divided by total costs, gives the best results in the middle scenario. This means that local policy makers are Giancarlo Caponio, Vito Massaro, Giorgio Mossa and Giovanni Mummolo: 9 Strategic Energy Planning of Residential Buildings in a Smart City: A System Dynamics Approach operating in a non-optimal way, because the intervention costs are much greater the benefits obtainable from the energy saved
Summary
The problem of how to tackle increasing global energy consumption due to the rampant growth of the human population – mostly in the less developed countries [1] – is one of the main challenges facing mankind today. There is a rising demand for tools to support decision makers in handling urban issues [13, 14] These tools need to be accessible to a wide group of people dealing with sustainable urban issues, including energy-planning processes. Against this background, the main target group for this paper is decision makers at a national and local level. Knowing how to think in terms of systems and interconnections is a critical step in effective policy design, policy implementation and consensusbuilding In this regard, the paper aims to identify the macro-variables related to both thermal and electric energy consumption in the residential sector. It allows local policy makers to test “what-if” scenarios analysing the expected results of implementing short-term and medium-term initiatives for energy savings
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