Paper Conference

Proceedings of BSO Conference 2018: Fourth Conference of IBPSA-England

     

Quantitative Estimations of the Reduction in Operating Costs and Carbon Emissions of the Cork Community Using the ENTRUST Built Environment Tool

Michael Edward Bennett, Mike Oates, Giulia Barbano

Abstract: Objectives: The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the application of a new prototype simulation tool, ENTRUST Built Environment, to investigate districtlevel electrical energy generation, consumption and distribution in the Cork community in order to reduce operating energy consumption, cost and carbon emissions. The ENTRUST Built Environment tool is part of a suite of tools designed to address the aims of the ENTRUST project, which are to map Europe’s energy system, develop an in-depth understanding about how human behaviour around energy is shaped by technological systems and drive the adoption of new technologies at a community level. Methods & Key Outcomes: The ENTRUST Built Environment tool is a high-level design tool that allows users to define simple district models of electricity distribution networks and make quantitative estimations of the impact of various interventions by performing energy simulations. The set of interventions available in the tool includes both building design options and a set of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs), which can represent local or centralised DERs based on their userspecified position in the distribution network. The energy simulations combine calculations of building electricity loads, generation, consumption and/or storage of electricity by DERs and a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) energy aggregation calculation in order to allow simulations of the demand, supply, storage and distribution of electricity throughout the network, including losses, fuel and carbon calculations. Baseline and intervention models are presented for the University College Cork campus, which show that various interventions, such as building retrofit options and the inclusion of renewable DERs, could reduce carbon emissions and operating costs. Novelty: Simulations of distributed energy systems are nothing new in the literature, but they are often very sophisticated because they need to meet the demands of academic researchers and utilities engineers. Consequently, there is a palpable need for user-friendly, scalable, accurate energy tools that allow urban planners, policy makers, stakeholders and services engineers to make quick and quantitative estimations of the impact of building design options and DERs on urban commodity distribution networks. The ENTRUST Built Environment tool is designed from the ground-up to meet these requirements and provide a tool that integrates building energy loads with district-level aggregation. Consequently, we aim to develop a unique tool that helps to enable the adoption of new technologies by communities, allowing them to make decisions that reduce the operating costs and carbon emissions of DERs and buildings.
Pages: 46 - 51
Paper:
bso2018_1B-2