Publications || IEA EBC || Annex 83

Annex 83

Factsheet: Positive Energy Districts (PDF 0.43MB)
June 2020

General Publications

Positive Energy Districts: Fundamentals, Assessment Methodologies, Modeling and Research Gaps
September 2024
Author(s): Kozlowska, A.; Guarino, F.; Volpe, R.; Bisello, A.; Gabaldòn, A.; Rezaei, A.; Albert-Seifried, V.; Alpagut, B.; Vandevyvere, H.; Reda, F.; Tumminia G.; Ranjbar S.; Rincione R.; Cellura S.; Eicker U.; Zamini S.; Diaz de Garayo Balsategui S.; Haase M.; Di Pilla L.
Publisher: MDPI energies
The definition, characterization and implementation of Positive Energy Districts is crucial in the path towards urban decarbonization and energy transition. However, several issues still must be addressed: the need for a clear and comprehensive definition, and the settlement of a consistent design approach for Positive Energy Districts. As emerged throughout the workshop held during the fourth edition of Smart and Sustainable Planning for Cities and Regions Conference (SSPCR 2022) in Bolzano (Italy), further critical points are also linked to the planning, modeling and assessment steps, besides sustainability aspects and stakeholders’ involvement. The “World Café” methodology adopted during the workshop allowed for simple—but also effective and flexible—group discussions focused on the detection of key PED characteristics, such as morphologic, socio-economic, demographic, technological, quality-of-life and feasibility factors. Four main work groups were defined in order to allow them to share, compare and discuss around five main PED-related topics: energy efficiency, energy flexibility, e-mobility, soft mobility, and low-carbon generation. Indeed, to properly deal with PED challenges and crucial aspects, it is necessary to combine and balance these technologies with enabler factors like financing instruments, social innovation and involvement, innovative governance and far-sighted policies. This paper proposes, in a structured form, the main outcomes of the co-creation approach developed during the workshop. The importance of implementing a holistic approach was highlighted: it requires a systematic and consistent integration of economic, environmental and social aspects directly connected to an interdisciplinary cross-sectorial collaboration between researchers, policymakers, industries, municipalities, and citizens. Furthermore, it was reaffirmed that, to make informed and reasoned decisions throughout an effective PED design and planning process, social, ecological, and cultural factors (besides merely technical aspects) play a crucial role. Thanks to the valuable insights and recommendations gathered from the workshop participants, a conscious awareness of key issues in PED design and implementation emerged, and the fundamental role of stakeholders in the PED development path was confirmed.
- Publication (PDF 1.09MB)
Quantifying and Rating the Energy Resilience Performance of Buildings Integrated with Renewables in the Nordics under Typical and Extreme Climatic Conditions
September 2024
Author(s): Rehman, H.u.; Nik, V.M.; Ramesh, R.; Ala-Juusela, M.
Publisher: MDPI buildings
The future buildings and society need to be resilient. This article aims to propose a novel concept of the energy resilience framework and implement a color-based rating system to quantify and rate the energy resilience performance of buildings in Nordic climates. The objective is to conduct a comparative analysis between old (1970s) and new (2020s) single-family buildings integrated with renewable energy sources and storage, assessing their energy resilience performance for heating during power outages, under extreme and typical climatic conditions. The study utilizes dynamic simulation of the buildings and renewable energy systems, conducting parametric studies to calculate proposed resilience indicators and rate their resilience performance, employing both passive and active methods. The total costs of the design variables are also calculated for economic evaluation. Given the complexities arising from climate change, the article uses a simplified method to synthesize regional climate to consider extreme climate change impacts on energy resilience performance. For the old building lacking PV, the robustness duration increased from 1 h to 3 h, and the degree of disruption (DoD) varied from 0.545 to 0.3 in extreme cold to warm climate scenarios, with the higher DoD number indicating worse performance. The impact of the season within the same climate scenario is also evident, as the habitability and robustness durations increased during spring compared to winter. The resilience improved with PV and battery. The new building showed that the robustness duration increased from 3 to 15 h, habitability durations increased, and the DoD varied from 0.496 to 0.22 from extreme cold to warm climates without renewables and storage. With the integration of PV and battery, the new building was able to achieve a lower DoD and better performance with lower PV and battery capacity, compared to the old building. Furthermore, utilizing the color grading method (red to green), optimal technical solutions and corresponding design variables were identified for each building type and climate scenario that could support decision-making. The total cost of the optimal solutions varied, as new buildings required lower costs to reach optimal performance. However, for optimal resilience performance during extreme cold climate scenarios, higher costs are required for each building type. The proposed resilience framework, indicators, color grading system, and costing could potentially support improvements in building regulations, ensuring the development of optimally resilient buildings, particularly in the face of extreme climatic conditions.
- Publication (PDF 5.27MB)
Exploring Multiple Benefits of Urban and Energy Regeneration Projects: A Stakeholder-Centred Methodological Approach
June 2024
Author(s): Bertolami, I.; Bisello, A.; Volpatti, M.; Bottero, M.C.
Publisher: MDPI energies
An effective way to promote energy transition while tackling climate change involves redefining cities from being part of the problem to integral parts of the solution. Positive energy districts and climate positive circular communities are excellent examples of how this is feasible. But how do we understand which are the multiple benefits that these projects can bring to the local territory and relative community? This article aims to answer this question by developing a specific engagement and evaluation methodology. Our approach involves consulting with project partners to explore the multiple benefits of each case study. Subsequently, it plans to engage the stakeholders through the submission of a questionnaire to gather information regarding the relative importance of different benefits as perceived by each stakeholder. The questionnaire is based on the best–worst scaling method, which is a survey technique for determining people’s priorities. The preliminary findings of the study conducted on project partners of two European projects, ARV and ProLight, indicate a strong alignment with current European policy priorities. The involvement of other stakeholders in the study will serve to assess whether bottom-up priorities coincide with broader perspectives or whether adaptations to project strategies and dissemination approaches are needed.
- Publication (PDF 1.42MB)
Towards Extensive Definition and Planning of Energy Resilience in Buildings in Cold Climate
May 2024
Author(s): Hassam ur Rehman, Mohamed Hamdy, Ala Hasan
Publisher: MDPI buildings
The transition towards a sustainable future requires the reliable performance of the building’s energy system in order for the building to be energy-resilient. “Energy resilient building in cold climates” is an emerging concept that defines the ability to maintain a minimum level of indoor air temperature and energy performance of the building and minimize the occupant’s health risk during a disruptive event of the grid’s power supply loss in a cold climate. The aim is to introduce an extensive definition of the energy resilience of buildings and apply it in case studies. This article first reviews the progress and provides an overview of the energy-resilient building concept. The review shows that most of the relevant focus is on short-term energy resilience, and the serious gap is related to long-term resilience in the context of cold regions. The article presents a basic definition of energy resilience of buildings, a systematic framework, and indicators for analyzing the energy resilience of buildings. Terms such as active and passive habitability, survivability, and adaptive habitable conditions are defined. The energy resilience indicators are applied on two simulated Finnish case studies, an old building and a new building. By systematic analysis, using the defined indicators and thresholds, the energy resilience performance of the buildings is calculated and compared. Depending on the type of the building, the results show that the robustness period is 11 h and 26 h for the old building and the new building, respectively. The old building failed to provide the habitability conditions. The impact of the event is 8.9 °C, minimum performance (Pmin) is 12.54 °C, and degree of disruption (DoD) is 0.300 for the old building. The speed of collapse (SoC) is 3.75 °C/h, and the speed of recovery (SoR) is 0.64 °C/h. On the other hand, the new building performed better such that the impact of the event is 4 °C, Pmin is 17.5 °C, and DoD is 0.138. The SoC is slow 3.2 °C/h and SoR is fast 0.80 °C/h for the new building. The results provide a pathway for improvements for long-term energy resilience. In conclusion, this work supports society and policy-makers to build a sustainable and resilient society.
- Publication (PDF 2.67MB)
Design and Operational Indicators to Foster the Transition of Existing Renewable Energy Communities towards Positive Energy Districts
May 2024
Author(s): R. Volpe, E. Cutore, A. Fichera
Publisher: JSDEWES
Renewable energy communities occupy a critical position in catalysing the energy transition within urban areas, while simultaneously making substantial contributions towards the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015. Positive Energy Districts are also gaining momentum, emerging as a concept of growing interest among researchers and urban planners. Renewable energy communities and positive energy districts are both expressions of sustainable urban energy forms, still there is the need to evaluate if a renewable energy community could be considered a positive energy district and under which conditions this transition will occur. To this scope, a holistic framework examining the transition from existing renewable energy communities to positive energy districts is proposed and characterized by focused and indicators, serving as critical instruments to conduct a tailored evaluation and characterization. Results demonstrate that the transition can be achieved by increasing by 20 % the renewable energy installations in the area.
- Publication (PDF 3.83MB)
Toward a certification protocol for Positive Energy Districts (PED). A methodological proposal
March 2024
Author(s): Volpatti M., Mazzola E., Bottero M., & Bisello A.
Publisher: TeMA
In order to achieve the ambitious CO2 emission reduction targets, set by the Sustainable Development Goals, it is crucial to act on cities. Indeed, cities are responsible for 67% of the world's primary energy consumption and about 70% of energy-related CO2 emissions. To support the urban energy transition, a broad implementation of zero-emission districts or, even better, positive energy districts (PEDs) is expected. PEDs can be defined as energy-efficient and energy-flexible urban areas that aim to provide a surplus of clean energy to the city by using renewable energies. However, in developing the PEDs concept, it is necessary to consider not only the technical issue of energy systems but also the environmental, social, and economic spheres. To be effective, it is important to provide decision-makers with tools such as protocol certification for PEDs, which can effectively assess the complexity of the impacts a PEDs might have on other urban transformations from a multi-stakeholder perspective. LEED for neighborhood development, BREEAM communities, and CASBEE for cities are the most widely used and known protocols in the world for the evaluation of districts. Protocol certifications today do not consider PEDs because they are outdated, but some common characteristics can already be found within them, which allows for the possibility of reformulating scores and inserting new evaluation criteria. The aim of this research, through a review of the literature, is to analyze the current protocol certificates at the district level, identifying criteria and scores within the evaluation methods, with the aim of contributing to the definition of a PED certification protocol with effective criteria and scores to support design and development of PEDs.
- Publication (PDF 1.74MB)
Incorporating Citizen Science to Enhance Public Awareness in Smart Cities: The Case Study of Balaguer
March 2024
Author(s): Luisa F. Cabeza, Mercè Teixidó, Francesco Guarino, Roberta Rincione, Manel Díaz, Rosa M. Gil, Maurizio Cellura, Carles Mateu
Publisher: MDPI applied sciences
The concept of a smart city is becoming increasingly popular to improve citizens’ quality of life. Institutions are also committed to enhancing the sustainability of cities by implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper presents a Balaguer case study investigating energy demand monitoring, decreasing energy demand, and citizen acceptance in a municipality district. The study collected data from three sources: (1) quantitative data coming from on-site sensors; (2) quantitative data from a simulation of the area; and (3) qualitative data from questionnaires developed with a totem located in the city center. This study shows the importance of citizen science in contributing towards the increased awareness of energy demand, renewable energy, and climate change. But it also shows how citizen science can improve research quality involving the municipality authorities. This study also was instrumental in contributing to the increase in awareness among municipality authorities and capacity building on the topic. This activity may also contribute towards the implementation of actions to reduce the energy demand in public buildings and helping them in deploying policies to decrease energy demand in buildings, increase the use of renewable energy, and increase awareness among citizens. The government will use the information gathered to develop policies for citizen improvement.
- Full Report (PDF 5.65MB)
Ten questions on tools and methods for positive energy districts
March 2024
Author(s): Jonathan Natanian, Francesco Guarino, Naga Manapragada, Abel Magyari, Emanuele Naboni, Francesco De Luca, Salvatore Cellura, Alberto Brunetti, Andras Reith
Publisher: Elsevier
Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) are emerging as a new symbol for sustainable urbanism and energy transition in the built environment. The pursuit of PED development is increasingly rooted in several EU policies and initiatives, sparking discourse on the interplay between governance, technological and non-technological solutions, multiple stakeholders, and the dynamics of urban and climatic contexts. As their name suggests, PEDs are characterized by surplus renewable energy generation; however, recent developments in urban environmental science emphasize the critical need for an integrated approach to achieve the key performance indicators of the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Consequently, PED designs must dynamically integrate several stakeholders. These complexities intersect with urban challenges such as urban heat islands, microclimates, nature-based solutions integration, future climatic conditions, resource availability, social vibrancy, connectivity, walkability, economic activity, and more. Current tools are fragmented, severely limiting their ability to support such a multifaceted design process. This paper describes a holistic framework for tools and methods for PED design through a set of relevant questions. Drawing upon the expertise of nine researchers with complementary practical and scientific experience in various aspects of district-scale environmental performance analysis, we offer a comprehensive overview of the scopes, methods, metrics, and toolchains for PEDs, along with available tools to integrate them into different phases of the design process. This paper highlights both the challenges and opportunities ahead, emphasizing the cutting-edge methods and tools necessary to achieve robust, resilient, and data-driven processes for PED designs in a dynamic, multi-scale, and multi-disciplinary urban environment.
- Publication (PDF 3.29MB)
Operational Insights and Future Potential of the Database for Positive Energy Districts
February 2024
Author(s): Paolo Civiero, Giulia Turci, Beril Alpagut, Michal Kuzmic, Silvia Soutullo, María Nuria Sánchez, Oscar Seco, Silvia Bossi, Matthias Haase, Gilda Massa, Christoph Gollner
This paper presents the Positive Energy District Database (PED DB), a pivotal web tool developed collaboratively by the COST Action ‘PED-EU-NET’, in alignment with international initiatives such as JPI Urban Europe and IEA EBC Annex 83. The PED DB represents a crucial step towards sharing knowledge, promoting collaboration, reinforcing decision-making, and advancing the understanding of Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) in the pursuit of sustainable urban environments. The PED DB aims to comprehensively map and disseminate information on PEDs across Europe, serving as a dynamic resource for sustainable urban development according to the objective of making the EU climate-neutral by 2050. Indeed, PEDs imply an integrated approach for designing urban areas—the districts—where a cluster of interconnected buildings and energy communities produce net zero greenhouse gas emissions, managing an annual local/regional overflow production of renewable energy. The paper describes the collaborative step-by-step process leading to the PED DB implementation, the current results and potentials of the online platform, and introduces its future developments towards a more user-friendly and stakeholders-tailored tool. The interactive web map offers a customizable visualizations and filters on multiple information related to PED case studies, PED-relevant cases, and PED Labs. Users can access detailed information through a table view, facilitating comparisons across different PED projects and their implementation phase. The paper offers insights and detailed analysis from the initial dataset that includes 23 PED cases and 7 PED-related projects from 13 European countries, highlighting the key characteristics of surveyed PEDs.
- Full Report (PDF 6.46MB)
Perspectives of Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing on Characterizing Positive Energy Districts
January 2024
Author(s): Han, M.; Canli, I.; Shah, J.; Zhang, X.; Dino, I.G.; Kalkan, S.
Publisher: MDPI buildings
The concept of a Positive Energy District (PED) has become a vital component of the efforts to accelerate the transition to zero carbon emissions and climate-neutral living environments. Research is shifting its focus from energy-efficient single buildings to districts, where the aim is to achieve a positive energy balance across a given time period. Various innovation projects, programs, and activities have produced abundant insights into how to implement and operate PEDs. However, there is still no agreed way of determining what constitutes a PED for the purpose of identifying and evaluating its various elements. This paper thus sets out to create a process for characterizing PEDs. First, nineteen different elements of a PED were identified. Then, two AI techniques, machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP), were introduced and examined to determine their potential for modeling, extracting, and mapping the elements of a PED. Lastly, state-of-the-art research papers were reviewed to identify any contribution they can make to the determination of the effectiveness of the ML and NLP models. The results suggest that both ML and NLP possess significant potential for modeling most of the identified elements in various areas, such as optimization, control, design, and stakeholder mapping. This potential is realized through the utilization of vast amounts of data, enabling these models to generate accurate and useful insights for PED planning and implementation. Several practical strategies have been identified to enhance the characterization of PEDs. These include a clear definition and quantification of the elements, the utilization of urban-scale energy modeling techniques, and the development of user-friendly interfaces capable of presenting model insights in an accessible manner. Thus, developing a holistic approach that integrates existing and novel techniques for PED characterization is essential to achieve sustainable and resilient urban environments.
- Publication (PDF 3.84MB)
The Role of Positive Energy Districts through the Lens of Urban Sustainability Protocols in the Case Studies of Salzburg and Tampere
December 2023
Author(s): Volpatti, M.; Mazzola, E.; Bottero, M.C.; Bisello, A.
Publisher: MDPI buildings
To achieve the ambitious CO2 emission reduction targets set by the Sustainable Development Goals, it is crucial to act on cities. Indeed, cities are responsible for 67% of the world’s primary energy consumption and about 70% of energy-related CO2 emissions. To support the urban energy transition, a broad implementation of zero-emission districts or, even better, positive energy districts (PEDs) is expected. PEDs can be defined as energy-efficient and energy-flexible urban areas that aim to provide a surplus of clean energy to the city by using renewable energies. However, in developing the PEDs concept, it is necessary to consider not only the technical issue of energy systems but also the environmental, social, and economic spheres. To be effective, it is important to provide decision-makers with tools such as Urban Sustainability protocols for PEDs, which can effectively assess the complexity of the impacts a PED might have on other urban transformations from a multi-stakeholder perspective. LEED for Neighborhood Development, BREEAM Communities, and CASBEE for Cities are the most widely used and known protocols in the world for the evaluation of districts. These certification protocols were established before the concept of PEDs and, therefore, are not considered. However, they exhibit some shared characteristics which permit the evaluation of PEDs’ sustainability. In fact, through this research, an attempt is made to analyze how the implementation of sustainability protocols in existing PED projects can improve sustainability, but also how PED projects can improve evaluation systems through interventions that have not been considered so far. To test a methodology that could be extended in future case studies, an analysis of three of the world’s best-known certification systems, LEED-ND, BREEAM-CM, and CASBEE-UD, was conducted on two completed PEDs case studies, Tampere and Salzburg.
- Publication (PDF 1.51MB)
Renovation assessment of building districts: Case studies and implications to the positive energy districts definition
August 2023
Author(s): Francesco Guarino, Roberta Rincione, Carles Mateu, Mercè Teixidó, Luisa F. Cabeza, Maurizio Cellura
Publisher: Elsevier
As the built environment is among the main contributing sectors to climate change, it is needed to investigate new paradigms to push decarbonization efforts towards the ambitious objectives defined internationally. It is a shared understanding that shifting the perspective from the single building to the district perspective is required to fully take into consideration the complexity of all interactions undergoing within the built environment, thus the concept of Positive Energy District emerged as a district with annual net zero energy import and net zero CO2 emission working towards an annual local surplus production of renewable energy. In this framework, this paper explores the investigation of the potential for achieving the level of Positive Energy District in a group of non-residential buildings in Balaguer, Catalonia, Spain. These buildings, occupying 8,825 m2 in the city centre, require significant refurbishment for improved energy performance. The analysis includes building energy modelling and simulation, renovation studies, several alternative balance calculations, and carbon emissions assessment. The paper also considers mobility and embodied energy and their impact on energy/carbon balances. The results show that Positive Energy Districts carbon and primary energy balances are not met with rooftop PV installations when retrofitting an existing district towards the Positive energy target but further significant PV areas (roughly + 50%) are required to meet merely the use stage balances: negative results are traced when mobility and embodied energy are computed. A formulation alternative to the simple mathematical balance to facilitate the diffusion of Positive Energy District as catalyst of urban decarbonisation could be needed, including context factors and alternative systems (e.g., rating systems).
- Publication (PDF 15.81MB)
Assessing the performance of a renewable District Heating System to achieve nearly zero-energy status in renovated university campuses: A case study for Spain
July 2023
Author(s): Javier M. Rey-Hernandez, Francisco J. Rey-Martínez, Charles Yousif, Dorota Krawczyk
Publisher: Elsevier
This paper presents the implementation of a biomass-fuelled District Heating System (DHS), as a part of a deep energy renovation exercise to achieve a climate-resilient campus with minimum carbon dioxide emissions. The case study is carried out for the University of Valladolid, an average-sized university in Spain, with a continental weather climate.

Prior to renovation, the different building blocks had a wide-ranging level of fossil fuel consumption for space heating and domestic hot water ranging between 60 and 430 kWh/m2·year. The application of this centralised heating system allows to achieve the minimum threshold for near zero-energy buildings (nZEB) of 100–120 kWh/m2, in accordance with the Spanish Standards. These values correspond to the maximum European indicators for offices in continental weather conditions. Results of this comprehensive study show that 15 out of the 19 buildings reached the nZEB target, due to the proposed strategy. The overall carbon dioxide emissions have dropped by 92.69% as compared to the original fossil-fuel powered boiler, thus bringing carbon dioxide emissions down to 1.57 kgCO2/m2·y.

Therefore, it is shown that deep energy renovation strategies through renewable energy DHS have the potential of achieving nZEB for universities in continental weather conditions.
- Publication (PDF 6.01MB)
Energy Flexibility and towards Resilience in New and Old Residential Houses in Cold Climates: A Techno-Economic Analysis
July 2023
Author(s): Hassam ur Rehman, Ala Hasan
Publisher: MDPI energies
One of the main sectors that contribute to climate change is the buildings sector. While nearly zero-energy buildings are becoming a new norm in many countries in the world, research is advancing towards energy flexibility and resilience to reach energy efficiency and sustainability goals. Combining the energy flexibility and energy resilience concept is rare. In this article, we aim to investigate the effect of energy efficiency in a new single-family building on the energy flexibility potential and resilience characteristics and compare these with those for an old building in the cold climate of Finland. These two objectives are dependent on the buildings’ respective thermal mass. The heat demands of the two buildings are compared. Their technical and economic performance are calculated to compare their flexibility and resilience characteristics. Dynamic simulation software is used to model the buildings. The results show that the old building has better flexibility and higher energy cost savings when including the energy conservation activation strategy. In the old building, savings can be around EUR 400 and flexibility factor can be around 24–52% depending on the activation duration and strategy. The new building, due to higher efficiency, may not provide higher energy cost savings, and the energy conservation activation strategy is better. In the new building, savings can be around EUR 70 and the flexibility factor reaches around 7–14% depending on the activation duration and strategy. The shifting efficiency of the new house is better compared to that of the old house due to its higher storage capacity. For energy resilience, the new building is shown to be better during power outages. The new building can be habitable for 17 h, while the old building can provide the same conditions for 3 h only. Therefore, it is essential to consider both energy flexibility and resilience as this can impact performance during the energy crisis.
- Publication (PDF 6.16MB)
Toward Positive Energy Districts by Urban–Industrial Energy Exchange
May 2023
Author(s): Erfan Shafiee Roudbari, Ramanunni Parakkal Menon, Ivan Kantor, and Ursula Eicker
Editor(s): Tony Castillo-Calzadilla and Carlos Quesada Granja
The concept of Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) has emerged as a promising approach to achieving sustainable urban development. PEDs aim to balance the energy demand and supply within a district while reducing the carbon footprint and promoting renewable energy sources. Urban–Industrial Symbiosis (UIS) is another approach that involves the exchange of energy and resources between industrial processes and nearby urban areas to increase efficiency and reduce waste. Combining the concepts of PED and UIS can create self-sufficient, sustainable, and resilient districts. As the analysis and implementation of such systems are barely studied in North America, this research study was structured to fill the gap by evaluating the financial and environmental advantages of this combination. This study proposes a methodology to design a heat transmission system; then, it is applied to the case of a paper-making factory and a multifunctional heritage building in Montreal, Canada. The results show that the building’s new heating system can generate sufficient heat while emitting near-zero direct emissions. Overall, this paper argues that combining the concepts of PED and UIS can lead to a more sustainable and resilient urban area, and provides a roadmap for achieving this goal.
- Publication (PDF 0.64MB)
Territorial acupuncture: benefits and limits of energy communitynetworks
2023
Author(s): Leone F., Nigrelli F., Nocera F., & Costanzo V
Territorial Acupuncture is an approach that proposes a micro-invasive solution for the adaptation of densely populated areas through punctual interventions on a district scale. The aim of this study is to analyse the potential and limitations of this new application in order to understand whether and how to implement Territorial Acupuncture to make it as efficient and effective as possible. By first introducing the basic idea and a brief explanation of how this new approach works, it will then proceed to ananalysis and research phase to identify the benefits and limitations of this new approach. Finally, solutions for its improvement will be proposed. While the application of Territorial Acupuncture might be difficult due to the large number of actors to beinvolved, with small variations and theoretical additions (mostly social and environmental), it would allow energy, socio-economic and environmental dynamics to be changed quickly and optimally. In conclusion, Territorial Acupuncture, with the modifications proposed in this study, would be able to respond to the problems of contemporary urban poles without returning completely different territories even more efficiently and effectively.
- Full Report (PDF 1.24MB)
Optimal design and operation of distributed electrical generation for Italian positive energy districts with biomass district heating
June 2022
Author(s): R. Volpe, M. Gonzalez Alriols, N. Martelo Schmalbach, A. Fichera
Publisher: Energy Conversion and Management, vol 267
The active participation of prosumers within the energy generation and distribution stages has revolutionized the energy market favoring the rise of decentralized energy supply configurations and representing a key path for targeting the transition towards sustainable and energy-efficient urban areas. The new Renewable Energy Directive 2018/2001 regulates the constitution of renewable energy communities and promotes the exploitation of solid biomass, biofuels, and biogas for district heating. In addition, energy communities can be considered Positive Energy Districts in case of an annual net-zero energy import and local surplus of renewable production. In alignment with these regulatory frameworks, this research proposes a model for the design of prosumer- centered thermal and electrical grids pointing to a positive balance between production and consumption. In detail, this research contributes to the (i) design of the electrical and thermal distribution grids, (ii) configuration of the optimal exchange scheme for electrical distribution among prosumers, and (iii) valorization of the eventual positive surplus. The model is discussed for a candidate Positive Energy District in a real urban neighborhood in Sicily. Results demonstrate a good rate of interconnections among buildings in the area, especially in a spatial range of 200 m with almost 44 % of distributed electricity production. From the environmental viewpoint, 73 % of CO2 emissions are avoided in comparison with the centralized electrical supply, whilst 55 % of emissions reduction has been estimated from biomass district heating, thus posing favorable conditions for a possible transition of the existing area towards the Positive Energy District model.
ISBN: 01968904
- Publication (PDF 6.04MB)
Challenges in reaching positive energy building level in apartment buildings in the Nordic climate: A techno-economic analysis.
May 2022
Author(s): Hassam ur Rehman; Ala Hasan; Francesco Reda
Publisher: Energy and Buildings
Buildings consume significant amount of final energy and they emit large amount of CO2 emissions. To address this issue, nearly zero energy buildings is becoming a common in many countries, while research is advancing towards the positive energy building (PEB) target by utilizing renewable energy that can support reducing the emissions from the building stock. The aim of this study, is to design and model a renewable-based energy system for a real demo apartment building in Nordics (Finland) in order to be a PEB, by exceeding the building’s heating, cooling and plug load demands. The novelty of this study is to assesses the fulfillment of the PEB level in cold climate, by simulating various technologies (such as photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) system, heat pump (HP), wind turbines, seasonal thermal energy storage etc.) their integration with the building, its controls strategies, types of load included in the energy balance and definition of building boundaries across which the balance is calculated. TRNSYS simulation software is mainly used for dynamic simulation of the energy system. The electricity import and export, the life cycle cost (LCC), and the onsite energy matching factors are calculated to estimate the performance of the proposed system. In addition, the challenges related to the building’s limited physical boundary are discussed. The results of this study shows that, if all the demands are included, i.e. heating, cooling and plug loads, then it is difficult to reach the PEB level. In this case, the investment cost in the energy system is around 47–62% of the LCC and the rest is the operational cost. On the other hand, the PEB level is relatively easier to achieve if the plug loads are excluded, then the investment cost is around 88–100% of the LCC and there can be positive cash ?ow due to larger energy export than import. The PEB level is possible to be achieved when all the demands are included if the building boundary is extended to a virtual boundary outside its physical boundary that allows the addition of more renewable generations or by changing the building’s shape that allows the more installations of renewables on the roof. In this scenario, the investment cost on the energy system is around 62–91% of the LCC. Compared to the building cost, the energy system cost is generally low, i.e. around 1.2–4.3% of the building cost.. It can be concluded that in the Nordic conditions, it is difficult to reach the PEB level for the buildings in urban areas if the all the building’s energy demands are included. Renewable energy generations, such as additional PVT and wind turbines, are needed to be installed in an extended (virtual) boundary of the building if the PEB criterion has to be met when considering all the energy demands. Investment cost of the renewable energy system is low compared to the building’s cost, therefore, such renewable-based solutions can be provided with small additional cost, along with the new building’s cost, so that PEB and carbon neutrality targets can be achieved.
- Publication (PDF 1.42MB)
Ten questions concerning positive energy districts
March 2022
Author(s): Siddharth Sareen, Vicky Albert-Seifried, Laura Aelenei, Francesco Reda, Ghazal Etminan, Maria-Beatrice Andreucci, Michal Kuzmic, Nienke Maas, Oscar Seco, Paolo Civiero, Savis Gohari, Mari Hukkalainen, Hans-Martin Neumann
Publisher: Elsevier
Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) constitute an emerging energy transition paradigm, with an ambitious timeline for rapid upscaling to match the urgency of climate mitigation and adaptation. Increasingly networked and coordinated actors aim to realise 100 PEDs across Europe by 2025. This resonates with the mission orientation turn of the European Green New Deal, to inspire and enable target-driven innovation. Yet it raises questions that have long perplexed scholars and practitioners in energy transitions: how can rapid diffusion be achieved in a sustained and replicable manner in diverse socio-technical contexts? Identifying the key questions to address and implement fit-to-purpose solutions within short-term project timescales is essential in order to mainstream PEDs. Such solutionism must be accompanied by a healthy dose of scepticism, in order to avoid undesirable outcomes such as exacerbated inequalities, societal backlash, and spatial displacement of invisible burdens. But it also requires proactive sharing of experiences, responsive learning and dissemination, and cooperation across sectors and disciplines. In this timely contribution, thirteen researchers from nine European countries flag ten questions concerning PEDs, and offer preliminary responses in line with cutting-edge insights informed by science and practice. This contribution draws on multidisciplinary competence in steering the Positive Energy Districts Eu ropean Network, and aims to make emerging knowledge widely available, while also inviting constructive critique and engagement within the PED arena which features a broad range of diverse stakeholders. Authors highlight key pathways forward for a rapid, far-reaching translation of the ambitious PEDs agenda into multisited, district-scale beacons of sustainable energy transition.
- Publication (PDF 0.49MB)
Energy and Emission Implications of Electric Vehicles Integration with Nearly and Net Zero Energy Buildings
October 2021
Author(s): Rehman, H.u.; Diriken, J.; Hasan, A.; Verbeke, S.; Reda, F
Publisher: MDPI
Buildings and the mobility sectors are the two sectors that currently utilize large amount of fossil-based energy. The aim of the paper is to, critically analyse the integration of electric vehicles (EV) energy load with the building’s energy load. The qualitative and quantitative methods are used to analyse the nearly/net zero energy buildings and the mobility plans of the Europe along with the challenges of the plans. It is proposed to either include or exclude the EV load within the building’s energy load and follow the emissions calculation path, rather than energy calculation path for buildings to identify the benefits. Two real case studies in a central European climate are used to analysis the energy performance of the building with and without EV load integration and the emissions produced due to their interaction. It is shown that by replacing fossil-fuel cars with EVs within the building boundary, overall emissions can be reduced by 11–35% depending on the case study. However, the energy demand increased by 27–95% when the EV load was added with the building load. Hence, the goal to reach the nearly/net zero energy building target becomes more challenging. Therefore, the emission path can present the benefits of EV and building load integration.
- Publication (PDF 4.31MB)
Integrating Plus Energy Buildings and Districts with the EU Energy Community Framework: Regulatory Opportunities, Barriers and Technological Solutions
October 2021
Author(s): Tuerk, A.; Frieden, D.; Neumann, C.; Latanis, K.; Tsitsanis, A.; Kousouris, S.; Llorente, J.; Heimonen, I.; Reda, F.; Ala-Juusela, M.; Allaerts, K.; Caerts, C.; Schwarzl, T.; Ulbrich, M.; Stosch, A.; Ramschak, T.
Publisher: MDPI
The aim of this paper is to assess opportunities the Clean Energy Package provides for Plus Energy Buildings (PEBs) and Plus Energy Districts (PEDs) regarding their economic optimization and market integration, possibly leading to new use cases and revenue streams. At the same time, insights into regulatory limitations at the national level in transposing the set of EU Clean Energy Package provisions are shown. The paper illustrates that the concepts of PEBs and PEDs are in principle compatible with the EU energy community concepts, as they relate to technical characteristics while energy communities provide a legal and regulatory framework for the organization and governance of a community, at the same time providing new regulatory space for specific activities and market integration. To realize new use cases, innovative ICT approaches are needed for a range of actors actively involved in creating and operating energy communities as presented in the paper. The paper discusses a range of different options to realize PEBs and PEDs as energy communities based on the H2020 EXCESS project. It concludes, however, that currently the transposition of the Clean Energy Package by the EU Member States is incomplete and limiting and as a consequence, in the short term, the full potential of PEBs and PEDs cannot be exploited.
- Publication (PDF 0.53MB)
Qualitative Assessment Methodology for Positive Energy District Planning Guidelines
September 2021
Author(s): Hans-Martin Neumann; Sergio Díaz Garayo; Niki Gaitani; Daniele Vettorato; Laura Aelenei; Judith Borsboom; Ghazal Etminan; Anna Kozlowska; Francesco Reda; Jørgen Rose; Pekka Tuominen
Publisher: Springer, Singapore
Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) have recently become an important concept for urban development. However, the number of publications on the transfer of the PED concept to practice is still very limited. This conference paper presents an analysis of the current state of the art in guidelines regarding the planning and implementation of PEDs based on the analysis of 25 PED guidelines reported by anonymous contributors, collaborating in the development of the IEA EBC Annex 83 activities. From this analysis, it becomes clear that nearly all documents including were produced in the period 2018–2020. Most guidelines address local and/or regional governments, focusing predominantly on urban development and planning processes or technological solutions, mostly at the scale level of the district or city, and less often at building block or individual building level. Although some of the documents are journal papers with a very narrow view on specific technological design or implementation aspects, seven guidelines can provide city administrations, urban stakeholders, solution providers and research with overall information on and suggestions for the process of planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluation of PEDs, and a description of the potential impact of PEDs. They result of the analysis will serve as baseline for the future work within IEA Annex 83, in particular for drafting IEA Annex 83 guidelines for the planning and implementation of PEDs.
ISBN: 978-981-16-6269-0
Characterizing Positive Energy District (PED) through a Preliminary Review of 60 Existing Projects in Europe
July 2021
Author(s): Xingxing Zhang, Santhan R. Penaka, Samhita Giriraj, Maria N. Sánchez, Paolo Civiero, Han Vandevyvere
Editor(s): Francesco Nocera
Publisher: MDPI
Positive Energy District (PED) is recently proposed to be an integral part of a district/urban energy system with a corresponding positive influence. Thus, the PED concept could become the key solution to energy system transition towards carbon neutrality. This paper intends to report and visualize the initial analytical results of 60 existing PED projects in Europe about their main characteristics, including geographical information, spatial-temporal scale, energy concepts, building archetypes, finance source, keywords, finance model and challenges/barriers. As a result, a dedicated date base is developed and it could be further expanded/interoperated through an interactive dashboard. It is found that Norway and Italy have the most PED projects so far. Many PED projects state a ‘yearly’ time scale while nearly 1/3 projects have less than 0.2 km2 area in terms of spatial scale. The private investment together with regional/national grants is commonly observed. A mixture of residential, commercial and office/social buildings are found. The most common renewable energy systems include solar energy, district heating/cooling, wind and geothermal energy. Challenges and barriers for PED related projects vary from the planning stage to the implementation stage. Furthermore, the text mining approach is applied to examine the keywords or concentrations of PED-related projects at different stages. These preliminary results are expected to give useful guidance for future PED definitions and proposals of ‘reference PED'.
- Publication (PDF 5.67MB)
A techno-economic analysis of an optimal self-sufficient district
April 2021
Author(s): Ari Laitinen, Oscar Lindholm, Ala Hasan, Francesco Reda, Åsa Hedman
Many cities and districts have announced that their ultimate goal is to be energy self-sufficient, but there are many technical and economic challenges that are required to be studied. The aim of this study is to find cost- optimal technical solutions for districts with high energy self-sufficiency rates that can cover their electricity demand. Two methods are applied, a rule-based method and an optimization method, to find the renewable energy system capacities for local centralized wind power, solar photovoltaic, battery, heat storage and heat pump in a district with a minimum life cycle cost. The Kalasatama district in Helsinki-Finland, is taken as a case study. The results show that the full energy self-sufficiency target requires very high investments in the renewable energy systems. For the studied case, reducing the self-sufficiency rate to 76% can bring down the life cycle cost by 66% and achieve a net-zero annual energy balance. It is economically and technically more feasible to aim achieving Positive Energy District or Net-Zero Energy District instead of full energy self-sufficiency. Based on the obtained results, the main investment should be made in wind power, due to its higher utilization rate around the year compared to solar photovoltaic. Investments in the expensive centralized battery storage sharply drops when the self-sufficiency rate is reduced from 100%. It is revealed that due to the high population density and limited availability of renewables, the physical boundary of a district may not fit the required renewable energy installations if high self-sufficiency is targeted. This will frequently lead to expanding the district boundary towards a virtual balancing boundary.
- Publication (PDF 2.95MB)
IEA EBC Annex83 Positive Energy Districts (PDF 1.58MB)
March 2021
Author(s): Åsa Hedman, Hassam Ur Rehman, et al.
Publisher: MDPI
At a global level, the need for energy efficiency and an increased share of renewable energy sources is evident, as is the crucial role of cities due to the rapid urbanization rate. As a consequence of this, the research work related to Positive Energy Districts (PED) has accelerated in recent years. A common shared definition, as well as technological approaches or methodological issues related to PEDs are still unclear in this development and a global scientific discussion is needed. The International Energy Agency’s Energy in Buildings and Communities Programme (IEA EBC) Annex 83 is the main platform for this international scientific debate and research. This paper describes the challenges of PEDs and the issues that are open for discussions and how the Annex 83 is planned and organized to facilitate this and to actively steer the development of PEDs major leaps forward. The main topics of discussion in the PED context are the role and importance of definitions of PEDs, virtual and geographical boundaries in PEDs, the role of different stakeholders, evaluation approaches, and the learnings of realized PED projects.

Articles

Conference Papers

Lessons learned from analysing PED case studies
March 2024
Author(s): Matthias Haase, Ursula Eicker, Caroline Hachem-Vermette; Genku Kayo, Hassam ur Rehman
The development of Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) is a complex process that involves the integration of various technologies, stakeholders, and policies. To facilitate this process, a database for PEDs has been developed as a joint effort of COST Action 'PED-EU-NET', IEA EBC Annex 83, and JPI Urban Europe. This paper reports analyzes international strategies for PED planning and its implementation. To learn from best practice examples, there is an increasing demand for PED cases descriptions that offer a variety of implementation strategies and conceptualizations for the PED concept. The collection of case studies from various settings so far has shown that there is no onefits-all solution for PED implementation, and the overall PED framework definitions require further detailing in the local context. In this paper the challenges and key success factors for planning and implementation of PEDs is described with a focused analysis of three PED cases. One PED case each from Europe, from Canada and from Japan highlights the challenges of PEDs. Similarities and differences of the PED cases are compared and key success factors distilled. Thus, the DNA of PEDs can be further revealed. These are technological solutions, depending on the local circumstances (natural and imposed constraints), planning and implementation processes, and overall local settings (municipality or private sector as a driver) that define the successful implementation of a PED. Overall, the PED-Database provides a valuable tool for the development of sustainable and energyefficient urban areas.
- Publication (PDF 0.33MB)
Evaluating Positive Energy Districts: A Literature Review
August 2022
Author(s): Binda, T., Bottero, M., & Bisello, A.
Publisher: Springer, Part of the Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems book series (LNNS,volume 482)
To achieve the climate goals in the Paris Agreement and clean energy transition, positive energy districts must be promoted. A positive energy district is focused on increasing the efficiency of the buildings within it, using the renewable energy it produces, favouring electric and hybrid cars, and storing all the energy produced, in order to make clean energy for the whole city. Positive energy is a concept that takes into account not only the energy aspect, but also the environmental, social, and economic sphere. In order to be effective, this transformation requires the intervention of the community and the local decision-makers. The aim of the paper is to investigate the scientific literature, through the scientific dataset SCOPUS, in order to develop an evaluation framework for energy transition to support the decision-makers. Since the positive energy district is a recent paradigm, the investigation is extended to consider energy fields and takes into account different levels of urban scale. Specific keywords are used in order to find different economic methods in the literature, which can be used to support positive energy transition.

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06825-6_170
ISBN: 978-3-031-06825-6
- Paper (PDF 1.83MB)
Sustainability in Energy and Buildings 2021
January 2022
Editor(s): John R. Littlewood, Robert J. Howlett, Lakhmi C. Jain
Publisher: Springer Singapore
Presents research works in the field of sustainability and energy in buildings
Provides original works presented at SEB 2021 held in Split, Croatia
Serves as a reference for researchers and practitioners in academia and industry
ISBN: 9789811662683 9789811662690
- SEB21 Proceedings (PDF 6.34MB)
Economic and emission reduction potential of renewable based energy systems in an apartment building in cold climatic conditions
September 2021
Author(s): Hassam ur Rehman, Ala Hasan, Francesco Reda
Publisher: BS 2021
Buildings are one of the largest contributors towards emissions. The EU countries plan to cut 80% of the emissions by 2050. The aim of this article is to model two different photovoltaic (PV) based energy systems integrated either with new or old building in a district and to conduct emissions comparison against a reference city level energy system in the Nordic region. The main novelty lies in the analysis of the CO2 reduction potential from the grid and buildings. The relative emissions reduction is found to be 85% when the new building is integrated with PV+heat pump and seasonal storage system compared to the reference energy system. The emission reduction cost of such a system is 8.59 €/kg CO2/yr. Such systems can support in reaching the EU’s emissions target.
- Paper (PDF 3.81MB)
A Systematic Approach Towards Mapping Stakeholders in Different Phases of PED Development—Extending the PED Toolbox
September 2021
Author(s): Caroline Cheng, Vicky Albert-Seifried, Laura Aelenei, Han Vandevyvere, Oscar Seco, M. Nuria Sánchez & Mari Hukkalainen
Publisher: Springer, Singapore
The development of Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) is arguably the development of an innovation embedded in a community of organisations and individuals (occupants, inhabitants, citizens) who can affect or are affected by the innovation. However, current methods of stakeholder engagement in PED developments do not systematically identify the type of stakeholders by phases of PED development. In this paper, we draw from selected theories on stakeholders in the strategic management literature from a practical viewpoint to outline a systematic approach towards mapping stakeholders in PED developments. The research question addressed is: How can stakeholders be systematically mapped in the different phases of PED development? From a case study involving 7 PED projects, we applied a preliminary tool delineating eight categories of actors relevant for the different phases of PED development. Based on our analysis, we suggest that it is important to reimagine PED stakeholders as interactive actors since stakeholder roles shift during the PED process and to map them on the building, district and the city scale. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, in terms of managerial implications, we have outlined a preliminary actor-oriented stakeholder mapping framework that is attuned to the phases of the PED process and the different scale of stakeholders (building level, district level and the city level). Second, in terms of research implications, we have extended the notion of the PED toolbox to not only consider technical tools and non-technical tools but also include a category of managerial tools that merits research attention.
ISBN: 978-981-16-6268-3
- SEB21 Proceedings (PDF 6.34MB)

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