Brief description of the proposal

Urban areas are responsible for 70% of global primary energy-related CO2 emissions associated to energy consumptions due to transport, housing, and commercial facilities, posing a significant strain on sustainable development. To this aim, European policies and programmes promote the sustainable development of cities and communities, supporting the implementation of new solutions for urban energy and mobility systems. To address the related technical and socioeconomic challenges, researchers are thus called to develop innovative solutions for building clusters at energy level with the aim of integrating on-site renewable energies, innovative energy storages, and advanced energy management logics. 

As a response to this challenge, the HERA project focuses on the development of a holistic modelling approach for designing resilient, flexible, and energy efficient urban districts. These are defined as building clusters able to optimally interact with energy grids, by exploiting local renewable energy and storage systems, and by adopting new energy management tools based on sector coupling and demand response strategies in a smart energy system perspective. The aim of the project is to propose representative building clusters and districts fed by renewables able to achieve energy resilience by generating and managing energy locally. In this framework, the proposal seeks at developing a holistic and multi-scale research platform, based on the dynamic simulation and testing, for the design and optimization of the above mentioned innovative systems and adopting optimal energy management schemes, with the multiple aims of:

• Developing building clusters and districts models via a physics-based bottom-up approach to simulate the thermal and electricbehaviour of building archetypes (calibrated on existing building stock datasets and simulation platforms), and to design and retrofit buildings’ solutions for energy efficiency and flexibility;

• Developing a whole dynamic simulation tool for the assessment and optimization of single and aggregated buildings’ energy demand profiles, also as a function of human behavioural patterns, and of on-site renewable generation to assess self-generation capacity;

• Creating novel energy management schemes for the mutual exchange of energy fluxes within and among buildings and energy users at cluster and district levels as well as towards the grid, by exploiting the use of energy storage systems and demand response strategies, to enhance energy autonomy and add flexibility;

• Conducting the proof-of-concept of the best energy management scheme, to be implemented in an existing building cluster, also exploited for model validations purposes;

• Providing guidelines for energy policy makers, system designers and stakeholders to aid the design of sustainable building clusters and districts, the implementation of suitable energy management schemes, and the definition of correct grouping criteria.

Dynamic simulation tool 

HERA aims at fulfilling the above-mentioned research gaps, by contributing to the research field of urban energy design, through the development of a comprehensive yet flexible dynamic simulation tool for the design, optimization, and operation of energy self-sufficient districts, where multiple interconnected buildings interact with smart energy networks and local infrastructure, distributed renewable systems, energy storages and e-mobility as a smart energy system. The innovative simulation platform will be exploited, in case of new designs and retrofits, for the identification of energy efficiency options, to be defined as a result of optimization procedures also necessary for sizing purposes. Energy efficiency options will be investigated at:

❒ buildings level, such as: optimization of passive design and integration of active solar technologies, high performance artificial lighting, high-performance and optimally controlled HVAC systems, integrated renewable energy systems (e.g. solar thermal and PV, wind), energy storage systems (e.g. thermal, electrical).

❒ district level, such as: implementation of district energy networks (e.g. district heating and cooling, smart grid), renewable energy supply from on-site generation (e.g. solar, wind, biomass), energy storage systems (e.g. thermal, electrical, hydrogen).

Moreover, the simulation platform will also be exploited for the implementation of energy management schemes, e.g. energy sharing, demand response to optimally manage the system so as to avoid issues of excess electricity production due to the unpredictable production of RES. In this regard, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) techniques will be explored todevelop innovative control strategies and energy management strategies which can substitute to the user in the process of optimizing the energy mix. The resulting tool, by handling complex interactions between different energy entities, will be able to achieve optimal district energy performance for sustainability and resilience, and to test and derive innovative energy business model applied to energy initiatives and sharing schemes; attention will be paid to the Italian context and regulatory framework.

The platform will enable the simulation and optimization of case studies to be considered as benchmarks for obtaining novel technological pathways and policy inputs to be applied in sustainable districts. The case studies will be designed starting with representative clusters or districts, made up by exploiting 3D GIS-based integrated design tools. Such clusters will include the buildings, the local generation systems, the energy storages, e-mobility, as well as the energy networks. Besides these case studies, the town of Accadia (Foggia, Italy), will be considered as a real case study for which collected energy consumption data are available and it will be used the implementation of innovative energy efficiency options and energy management schemes for the sustainable transition of the village. This town has been selected within the PNRR competition “Turismo e Cultura - Attrattività dei Borghi”, and as such, will be a case study to test the results of the HERA consortium.

Target of the project

To this goal, HERA aims at answering several key research questions, such as:

❒ Which criteria drive the clustering of buildings in blocks to be interconnected?

❒ Which and how energy efficiency measures and local renewable energy sources can be implemented at building and city level?

❒ Which is the level of detail achievable for coordinating the energy flows among multiple energy objects within a district?

❒ How emerging energy storage and demand response strategies may enhance the self-sufficiency of districts while also being able to offer flexibility services to the grid?

Possible application potentialities and impacts

The HERA project aims at supporting the urban energy development to achieve the reduction of energy consumption, the increase of energy security, autonomy, and resilience in case of unexpected climate scenarios and crises, such as pandemics and geopolitical tensions. To do so, HERA focuses on a successful design and operation of decarbonized districts and neighbourhoods which has remarkable societal, economic, and environmental benefits, which are mutually and intrinsically connected. The project aligns with the goals of the PNRR by supporting the green energy transition, the sustainable and inclusive development, providing tools supporting decision-making processes.