Conference Paper

Proceedings of SimBuild Conference 2024

Impact and Cost Analysis of Thermal Load Electrification Measures using Automated Urban Building Energy Modeling in Ithaca, NY

Timur Dogan, Patrick Kastner, Hung Ming Tseng, Amber Jiayu Su, Kewei Curtis Xu
Environmental Systems Lab, Cornell University, United States of America

Abstract: Building decarbonization is an urgent, cross-disciplinary challenge. However, stakeholders often need better tools to plan this transformation. Holistic urban building energy models (UBEM) enable planners and municipal government to see the bigger picture and allow for data-driven and community-engaged planning. However, UBEM adoption remains rare, especially in smaller cities, due to technical complexity, lack of data availability, and data sharing on building stock properties and energy use. This paper describes a fully automated bottom-up UBEM simulation approach that fuses available urban data sets for rapid and building-specific energy scenario simulation using a lower-order 5R1C model. Results from this analysis would allow planners to implement best practice multi-objective, multi-stakeholder decision-making methodologies that would prove invaluable to accelerate building stock decarbonization through optimal allocation of limited resources using UBEM as a valuable decision-making tool.
Keywords: UBEM, policy, decarbonization, electrification, multi-objective, multi-stakeholder
Pages: 11 - 18
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