Supporting Local Authorities to Plan Energy Efficiency in Public Buildings: From Local Needs to Regional Planning

Abstract

The support offered to local authorities in this work consisted of technical and economic training on the integration of energy efficiency measures as well as the development of tools (guidelines, a decision support tool, databases and a visualization platform) that allow local authorities to prepare their building renovation plans. These tools are found very useful for local authorities, particularly in the case of Teruel province, characterised by many small municipalities whose local governments do not have the technical staff to undertake this type of planning. As a result of this work, an energy action plan was elaborated for the implementation of 96 energy efficiency measures in public buildings of Teruel province. The execution of this plan would allow energy savings of 1.3 MWh/year and 245 tonsCO2e/year of CO2 emission reduction, involving an investment of EUR 1.2 M. The close collaboration with public authorities made it possible to assess the strengths and weaknesses of using the developed tools. One of the barriers found is the availability of accurate building data (e.g., regarding envelope features) necessary for the decision support tool.

Improving the Energy Performance of Public Buildings in the Mediterranean Climate via a Decision Support Tool

“…Within this research, particular focus is placed on the processes and outcomes observed during the study conducted within the Portuguese regions. At the same time, some work has already been developed for other countries and regions (e.g., Teruel, Spain) [35].…”

“…The PrioritEE DSTool, which can be accessed online [32], enables local and regional authorities to evaluate the potential energy and financial savings achievable by implementing various measures to enhance the energy efficiency of individual public buildings and the entire building stock. The DSTool is currently being utilised by local administrations in the Mediterranean (MED) region, in Italy [34] and Spain [35], among others, to assess buildings' energy consumption and the cost-effectiveness of predefined measures, and to prioritise renovation actions and investments. The Decision Support Tool encompasses a comprehensive range of key performance indicators, and various intervention scenarios can be compared to analyse the impacts of the proposed strategies.…”

Recent Advances in Technologies, Methods, and Economic Analysis for Sustainable Development of Energy, Water, and Environment Systems

“…Herrando et al [20] presented a study describing the development of an energy action plan as a key and useful element offered to local authorities based on energyefficient measures and the integrated application of renewable resources in municipal public buildings. They also described the development of an energy plan referring to a decision support tool, database, and visualization platform, allowing local authorities to define suitable building renovation energy actions.…”

“…Section 4 collects papers that address the topic of sustainable development for buildings, including energy supply and demand analysis (e.g., sediment heat energy [16], lifecycle analysis [17]) and lowtemperature direct heating and cooling (DHC) systems [18]. Section 5 collects papers that address the topic of techno-economic assessment of renewable systems (e.g., energy storage systems in microgrids [19] and smart control for hybrid renewable energy resources [20]) and environmental evaluation (especially for individual mountain huts [21] and building retrofit [22]). Eventually, Section 6 summarizes the main conclusions of the present review and the limitations of the current investigation.…”

Sensitivity Analysis on the Operating Energy Efficiency of Public Buildings in China

“…For such assessment, the energy efficiency label is potential solution widely praised for its simple and intuitive structure, easy-to-understand, small investment, and obvious benefits. Studies have shown that public buildings consume a great amount of energy during the entire life cycle, so their energy efficiency has received extensive attention from many researchers [3][4][5][6] .…”