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3D city models can be used to carry out building and block energy simulation and assess different improvement scenarios for achieving energy positiveness of city blocks. Visualization of results using concise indicators saves planners’ time.
The goal of this use case was to identify suitable technologies to support improved district energy planning, taking into account possibilities to achieve energy positivity within the district, and assess the role of the Espoo 3D city model in the process. Various technical solutions are available to improve energy efficiency and self-sufficiency of districts. These increasingly include integration of local energy sources at individual buildings, or massive implementation of energy efficiency measures e.g., certain products, or in cases with large housing companies even renovation packages in groups of buildings. Changes in energy use and balances of individual buildings and district may be notable and require assessment. Also, relative sizes, consumption intensity, distances matter when assessing potential solutions.
Key questions that need to be answered when planning district-level energy solutions especially from the viewpoint of energy positivity include:
The existing 3D city model of Espoo was used to collect up-to-date basic information about buildings in a chosen district, and to construct simplified energy models of individual buildings automatically. During this pilot assessment, most of the used energy data was collected from the internal building management software of the city, and compiled with the 3D model data manually.
The effect of predefined improvement measures was calculated by simulating the resulting hourly energy load and generation profiles for the selected individual buildings. From this simulation, chosen indicators were calculated to define the benefits of different measures, including indicators such as On-site Energy Ratio, Fraction and Matching that define the possibilities for on-site energy production and use.
To summarize and display results, absolute and relative summaries were produced in table and map forms. Performance indicators for the district were presented in table form.
