Energies, Vol. 12, Pages 210: Linear Optimisation of a Settlement Towards the Energy-Plus House Standard (Energies)

Future buildings will use technologies that are either well-known, innovative, or a combination thereof in order to be environmentally friendly and feasible at the same time. To evaluate and compare such systems through simulation, adaptive tools need to be available. This paper describes a conceived method for planning quarters and settlements. The novelty of this work emerges from the combination of a building simulation with a linear economic optimisation of the energy system, to achieve the energy-plus house standard for a settlement. Furthermore, the tools applied are adaptive or open source. In this article, a hypothetical basic example is given for a predefined idealised settlement, which consists of 132 single-family houses of one building type. The hourly demand for electrical energy and heat is established for three energy-efficiency classes for the building type with a dynamic simulation in MATLAB/SIMULINK using the CARNOT toolbox. This toolbox is also used to calculate the specific electrical energy production by photovoltaics. The components for the energy system of the settlement are implemented in the open source linear optimisation tool URBS. An economic optimum for the energy system of the settlement is found for each of the energy efficiency classes for an accumulated energy demand of the buildings. In this way, a lossless energy hub between the buildings is assumed. The results of the conducted simulations indicate that the optimal ratio of air/water to ground/water heat pumps shifts towards air/water heat pumps with more energy efficient houses. This is due to the lower specific investment costs, which outweigh the operational costs when less energy is required. The lowest costs for the entire energy system are for the one with the most energy efficient settlement. This is the case, as the costs for the higher energy standard of the buildings are not considered in the calculations. The behaviour of the optimisation is tested and discussed through a sensitivity analysis for one efficiency class. By presenting this simple, comprehensible example, an impression of the possible applications for this methodology is conveyed.