Using a novel method to obtain heating energy benchmarks in a cold region of China for the preparation of formulating incentive energy policies

Increasing emphasis has been made on energy conservation and pollution control with regard to the urbanization and sustainable development in Chinese society. This requires the three parties involved, the government, the heating providers and the building occupants, to focus on energy policies that can encourage behavior towards energy saving. For this, the heating energy performance in the region should be evaluated and the energy benchmarks need to be extracted. This paper adopted a novel approach to derive the benchmarks of the existing building stock in a cold region of China. The benchmarking was done using a special technique based on the Lorenz curve, which was compared with two competing methods. The Lorenz curve method was proved to be the most adequate one among the three. It can extract the energy benchmarks based on the distribution rules of heating energy use intensity in relation to the cumulative building area. Besides, it is an efficient method when only limited building information or data is available. Based on the results, this study also discussed in what way policy incentives can focus on the relationship between heating fees and building energy performance in the severe cold climate zones of China.