Hacia distritos de energía positiva: rediseño de un distrito mediterráneo mediante la integración de tecnologías solares y la activación de la flexibilidad energética

The article presents the analysis of several energy rehabilitation scenarios, the integration of renewable energy and the activation of energy flexibility in a small group of different buildings in the surroundings of a tourist port of the Mediterranean Sea in Italy, with the aim to transform it into “Positive Energy District” (PED). The proposed scenarios are based on the dynamic simulation of the district and analyze the effect of the actions that activate the energy flexibility of buildings through advanced control strategies of the air-conditioning system. The final goal of the study is to improve the contemporaneity between local generation of energy and load and reduce CO2eq emissions when considering signals that reflect the environmental variability of the electrical system. The results show that the joint action of energy efficiency strategies of energy flexibility improves the environmental sustainability of the district and the balance of energy flows. Specifically, the activation of energy flexibility contributes for a further 10% to the reduction of operational CO2eq emissions and for a further 10/12% to the increase in energy self-consumption. The results of this work translate into a series of learned lessons that can be extrapolated into similar contexts in the Mediterranean area