District-scale simulation for multi-purpose evaluation of urban energy systems

This article presents a simulation model for application to several commercial sector buildings in a particular area to analyse the impact of changes in buildings and building energy systems on the issue domains of mitigation of global warming and heat island phenomena as well as the planning of urban infrastructures for electricity and water. The impact on these issue domains is evaluated using five indicators: primary energy consumption, carbon dioxide emission, sensible anthropogenic heat release, peak electricity demand and water consumption by cooling towers. This article explains the modelling methodology, the simulation model including databases and a case study carried out to demonstrate the simulation capacity of the model. The case study shows that the form and function of buildings influence energy consumption and the five indicators significantly. The trade-off relationship is also shown between the five indicators with respect to changes in the heat-source system of buildings.