Adaptive Modelling of Resilient and Integrated Energy Systems in the Quarter of the Future

The decarbonisation of the mobility and energy sector is central to achieve climate protection targets. Due to their high energy demand and the density of infrastructure, urban districts have high potential for the energy transition. From PV systems, heat pumps and geothermal energy to sharing services, demand side management and virtual power plants, numerous technical and organisational solutions exist. However, the potentials of sustainable energy systems and sector coupling for urban neighbourhoods have so far been underutilised. Central obstacles are:

1. the multitude of different, competing concepts as well as their transfer and evaluation with respect to local conditions.
2. the increasing decentralisation of energy supply and the resulting lack of a strategic perspective on sector coupling.
3. conflicting goals between ecology, economy and social goals, e.g. the shift of environmental impacts from CO2 emissions during use to resource requirements in the production of technologies.

The overall objective of the project adjust is to develop an application-oriented and adaptive tool, the adjust tool, for participatory and multi-criteria planning of post-fossil and multi-sectoral energy and mobility in the neighbourhood. This tool should make the effects of different measures (e.g. heat pumps) and objectives (e.g. limiting resource consumption) on the neighbourhood energy system tangible and evaluate them multi-criterially. At the same time, it should take into account and highlight synergies and interactions between the sectors as well as between economic, ecological and political targets.

adjust is based on a multi-criteria analysis of the Herner Zukunftsquartier. First, energy system data in the neighbourhood (e.g. generation potentials and demand curves) are collected. Using scenario techniques, alternatives for the future development of the energy system are identified and evaluated using life cycle assessment and energy system modelling considering economic and ecological criteria. In addition, participatory elements (workshops, surveys) are used to integrate multi-stakeholder perspectives. The complexity of the results is then reduced in order to subsequently process them in the adaptive planning and evaluation tool adjust.

Project duration: 01.09.2023-31.12.2025

Funding provider: Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen

Funding amount: 323.283,33 €

The project adjust is part of the Applied Excellence Department (AED) of the Hochschulallianz Ruhr:
 https://www.hochschule-bochum.de/applied-excellence-department/