ÖKO-OPT-QUART – Ökonomisch optimiertes Regelungs- und Betriebsverhalten komplexer Energieverbünde zukünftiger Stadtquartiere

Starting point / motivation

The development of energy-efficient buildings and the massive proliferation of renewable energy production has ushered in a transformation of our urban energy networks. Their complexity has increased dramatically due to the dependency of renewable energy production on non-controllable and ever-changing phenomena such as wind speed and sun intensity, the increasingly decentralized production of energy and the increasing demands on efficiency.

Current control mechanisms used in building automation are not yet capable of operating such complex systems efficiently and reliably. An energetically and economically efficient and reliable mode of operation, however, is imperative for a broad acceptance of, and investments in, renewable energy technologies. Published literature on energy networks in urban quarters falls short of this promise and typically shows a modest and academically dominated level of knowledge.

Contents and goals

Three models for urban energy networks will be developed in this project and combined to an effective and comprehensive whole: an energy-based model, an economic model and a control model. The energy-based model describes both the thermal and electric behaviour of an urban energy network in a detailed and dynamic way with high temporal precision. The economic model allows for a continuous financial assessment of the mode of operation by providing the possibility to track and analyse the expected costs. The control model either contains a conventional state-of-the-art control strategy or a predictive, cost optimizing control strategy for operating complex energy networks in complexes of buildings respectively urban quarters, enabling a comparison of the two controls by comprehensive simulation studies. The development of these models is based on the new city district Graz-Reininghaus, which is currently in planning. The inclusion of the responsible planners and investors in the modelling process will guarantee the models’ practical applicability.

Methods

Based on the experience of the project partners as well as extensive literature research, data necessary for mathematical models are compiled and models are developed that can reproduce the data well. These models are implemented in application-specific simulation software and linked together in the context of a co-simulation in order to be able to

describe the entire range from energy to economics as a whole. Simultaneously, the models are simplified for the controller so that an optimization problem that can be solved in real-time can be formulated. This ensures an economical operation of the energy network. The quality of this controller is finally validated by means of the co-simulation. The resulting operational strategies are examined with regard to the possibility of their generalization to other configurations.

Expected results

Based on the findings of this project, a method for adapting the results obtained to different system configurations will be derived and documented in a guideline. The increased energetic and economic manageability of complex urban energy networks based on volatile renewable energy sources will improve the security of investments by providing an economical basis for decision-making in corresponding business models.