Towards Energy Efficient Housing – the importance of local energy planning

Paper in proceeding, 2009

A strategy for local energy planning must be in place in order to transform the local energy system and must comprise all relevant sectors and decision makers, i.e. include the residential sector with its relevant stakeholders. Thus, the housing sector cannot be treated in isolation but should rather be part of an analysis which takes a municipal energy systems perspective. This paper reports from an EU IEE (Intelligent Energy Europe) supported work named PATH-TO-RES which develops a methodology to be used as support tool for local energy planning. The work uses a number of local case studies (Göteborg (SE), Valencia (ES), Dunkerque (FR), Gdansk (PL) and Arnhem and Lochem (NL)) to develop a step-by-step assessment which can evaluate and define Pathways to renewable and efficient energy systems. A Pathway is a cost efficient way to bridge over from the present energy system to a sustainable system. In short, the proposed methodology starts with a detailed description of the present system (energy infrastructure as well as decision makers and stakeholders) and, based on this, a number of steps are defined with the aim to serve as check points to ensure that one or more Pathways can be formulated which describe how the local energy system can be transformed to comply with goals and targets. In order to describe the energy systems of the six case studies in a common way, a schematic model called a RES-diagram (RES=Reference Energy System) has been applied, from which the structure (i.e. components, flows and connections) and energy balance of the systems can be determined. In the six municipalities studied considerable variation of population, land area and scale and characteristics of the existing energy systems exist. Differences and similarities between the six systems are highlighted and the paper discusses pre-requisites and conditions for municipal energy planning, based on energy systems of the case study regions.