D4.3 - Report on infrastructure requirements for developing sustainably PEDs,summarizing the outcome of the techno-economic modelling activities

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Bruck, A., Casamassima, L., Akhatova, A., Arslangulova, B., Kranzl, L. and Galanakis, K. ORCID: 0000-0002-1320-2475, 2022. D4.3 - Report on infrastructure requirements for developing sustainably PEDs,summarizing the outcome of the techno-economic modelling activities. Smart‐BEEjS Consortium.

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Abstract

Implementation of PEDs requires immense infrastructure investments in energy efficiency measures, energy generation, transformation and storage as well as in new mobility solutions. On the other hand, it is crucial to create affordable living arrangements despite the high costs of the aforementioned measures. Thus, this work aims to answer the overarching question of which infrastructure will be required to turn an existing neighbourhood into a PED. As existing districts in Europe are highly heterogeneous and, thus, difficult to analyse, this study uses a case study with a specific district archetype. To address this issue, this study utilises the district comparability tool, a framework created as part of the SMARTBEEjS project to enable technical comparability across districts in Europe. In addition, the cost of the necessary infrastructure is estimated, which leads to the discussion of inclusion and affordability issues as potential barriers of PEDs.

An integrated techno-economic modelling consisting of different modelling approaches for the power, heating and cooling and mobility sectors as well as demand-side measures are applied. Those include tailor-made mixed integer linear programming, synPro simulations, agent based modelling and statistical correlations. Using these modelling methods, several plausible transition scenarios are analysed based on the building, climate and socio-demographic data of an archetype district of Griesheim-Mitte in Frankfurt am Main (Germany).

The results show that envelope retrofitting is crucial to fulfil the PED requirement of energy positivity and to reduce the capacities of the energy generation and storage technology. Furthermore, the PED concept can be more economical than the business-as-usual scenario of importing the required energy. However, high upfront costs can be a barrier for less wealthy societies. This barrier needs to be reduced by public schemes or smart business models to avoid creating a neighbourhood concept that does not uphold the principles of energy justice and inclusion.

This study has its limitations in terms of the scope of the study. Only one district archetype (based on Griesheim-Mitte in Frankfurt am Main and relevant for districts in Nottingham and Amsterdam) is analysed. Further work could look into different archetypes and the transition scenarios for those. Moreover, not all scenarios, i.e. transition measures could be modelled quantitatively within the frame of this work. In particular, the waste heat from data centers in the selected district was not considered. Hence, applying industrial waste heat for powering district heat networks should be investigated more thoroughly in the future.

Item Type:

Research report for external body

Description:

Commissioning Body: Smart-BEEjS, Horizon2020 Project.

Creators:

Bruck, A., Casamassima, L., Akhatova, A., Arslangulova, B., Kranzl, L. and Galanakis, K.

Publisher:

Smart‐BEEjS Consortium

Date:

30 September 2022

Identifiers: