Combined cooling, heating and power for small urban districts: An Italian case-study

The paper proposes a methodology and its application developed in order to optimize energy generation and usage in urban areas. The investigation has been applied at the Historical centre of Benevento, a southern Italian city. A geo-referenced energy model of the ancient town is proposed, and it allows - for each individual building - both evaluation and visualization of energy demands for space heating and cooling. In addition, the electric demands of buildings are also available, having quantified these by means of evaluation of all different energy uses and installed appliances. All energy evaluations have been collected through Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques. This procedure permitted the definition of Urban Energy Maps (UEMs), useful for evaluating the present criticalities, and thus suitable for designing possible urban energy retrofits, as - for instance - the installation of combined cooling, heat and power systems (CCHP), in order to satisfy the various energy requests. Finally, the entire method - in terms of combined information regarding thermal, cooling and electric load profiles - may orient towards a rational energy use, cost optimization and reduction of greenhouse emissions. The presented methodology can be easy implemented and repeated, and could be adopted as a new tool for supporting a suitable energy planning.