Sizing and Optimizing Community Energy Networks for Climate and Resilience

PI: Burcu Akinci

Co-PI(s): Corey Harper, Christine Mondor

University:  Carnegie Mellon University

Industry Partner: Evolve EA

In the face of climate change, and in line with Pennsylvania’s 2021 Climate Action Plan, the proliferation of adaptive and resilient community energy networks (CENs), which can reduce energy use, waste, and emissions, is a necessity. The aim of this research is to develop a tool which, given a particular community, will generate an optimal, hybrid CEN configuration which prioritizes emission and energy bill reductions and is constrained by installation costs. The tool – a novel combination of urban building energy modeling (UBEM), existing district energy technologies, and emergent technologies in heat recovery – will generate network configurations by assessing both energy demands and possibilities for alternative energy production and storage – wastewater heat recovery, thermal storage, electric vehicles as batteries, etc. The tool will be prototyped by evolveEA, a leading Pittsburgh design firm with a national impact, and will help planning firms across the Commonwealth to substantiate community energy strategies.