TREN/06/FP7EN/239285/SOLUTION

SOLUTION
Sustainable Oriented and Long-lasting Unique Team for
energy self suffIcient cOmmuNities
Deliverable D1.3.3-a, WP 1.3

GIS BASED ENERGY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM:

MODEL DESCRIPTION
Energy Supply and demand management
Due date of deliverable: 29-02-12
Actual submission date: 29-02-12
Start date of project:

1 November 2009

Duration: 60 months

Organisation name of lead contractor for this deliverable: VTT

Revision submission date: v1, original

CONCERTO is co-funded by the European Commission

Project co-funded by the European Commission within the Seventh Framework Programme (2007-2013)
Dissemination Level
PU

Public

PP

Restricted to other programme participants (including the Commission Services)

RE

Restricted to a group specified by the consortium (including the Commission Services)

CO

Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commission Services)

GIS based Energy Management System: Model description

DOCUMENT CHANGE LOG

Revision

Date

Changes description

v1

29.02.12

Original report

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GIS based Energy Management System: Model description

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1
2
3
4

SUMMARY OF THE CONTENTS ..........................................................................................4

OBJECTIVE OF THE WORK PACKAGE.................................................................................4
OBJECTIVES OF BEST AND CDS SHEETS .............................................................................5
APPROACH TO ACHIEVE THE DELIVERABLE .........................................................................5
4.1
Principle of GIS based Energy management tool ........................................ 5
4.2
General Specification .............................................................................. 7
4.3
Source material and numeric estimation ................................................... 7
4.3.1 GIS data sources ................................................................................... 8
4.3.2 Heat consumption of buildings .............................................................. 10
4.3.3 Areal fuel consumption and emissions .................................................... 10
4.4
Implementation in GIS-EMS software ......................................................12
4.4.1 Concerto area energy balances and total emission analysis ....................... 12
4.4.2 Planning of decentralised energy production and DH expansion with
EMS
13
4.4.3 Geographical representation of local energy production ............................ 16
4.5
Case studies.........................................................................................17
4.6
Preliminary results ................................................................................21
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................22

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GIS based Energy Management System: Model description

1 Summary of the contents

The report in hand describes the current state of the GIS based energy system
management model and the plans for the final implementation, aiming to provide a tool
to illustrate numerical data in geographical format in a meaningful way to support
decision making on a city level.
A number of case studies were carried out utilising the data from City of Lapua, energy
company of Lapua (Lapuan Energia) and Population Register Centre to flesh out the
capabilities of the GIS assisted study in the field of energy system management. The
detailed raw data was refined and aggregated to produce representative illustrations
concerning the Concerto area in Lapua.
The report contains a general specification of the concept, a detailed description on the
data sources utilised and the methods used to refine the raw data, a listing of the main
parameters used in the calculation of preliminary results, energy balances and emissions
analysis of the Concerto area, the methodology for planning decentralised production and
expansion of district heating system using EMS, and preliminary results and a collection
of illustrations in 250 m grid format showcasing the current state of the GIS tool.

2 Objective of the Work Package

The objective is to provide a common framework suitable for assessing the success of the
different demonstration projects and the emission mitigation potential of a communitywide application of these EE and RES technologies. This work package aims at:
Providing common reporting formats
Evaluating all relevant factors of actual and planning energy data for
mapping demand and supply.
Conducting quantitative and qualitative analysis of the performance of the
demonstration site installations.
Monitoring and
applications

validating

the

outcomes

of

individual

and

overall

The report in hand aims to describe the Energy Management System using Lapua
Concerto zone in visualisation of the EMS tool. The next step in developing and
implementation of EMS is a report presenting the final results of the energy supply and
demand management in the city of Lapua, i.e. application of the EMS tool for Lapua
Concerto zone.
In the EMS tool development and implementation the GIS (geographical information
system) has an important role. GIS gives possibilities for collection and presentation
input data, for treatment of data and for output of information of the energy system
management. Connection of GIS and energy modelling leads to the new title of the tool:
GIS-based EMS. Energy-maps and optimised energy configuration are the main results of
the GIS-based EMS tool.
In the WP in question, GIS-based EMS meets the several requirements in the different
tasks (Task 1.3.1-3). Some subtasks are listed below:
A common reporting format for collating relevant demand and supply data
Data mapping and resulting tool for Energy supply and demand management.
Implementation principle of the actual and planning data into the Energy
Management System.
The database within the EMS leads to mapping of the demand and supply sides
and serves as references for further simulation and optimisations.

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GIS based Energy Management System: Model description

For Lapua built EMS tool connects together of all relevant elements of the EMS
(GIS and optimisation models)
Visualisation of the results of the EMS simulation showing the optimum use of the
energy in the Lapua Concerto zone

3 Objectives of best and cds sheets

The work package belongs to horizontal RTD cooperation in the Solution project.
However, the WP Energy supply and demand management is closely connected to Energy
efficiency and RES demonstrations in the Concerto cities. Configuration of the GIS based
EMS-tool includes demo-cases, the sub-models are built and verified by the data and
information on demo-cases. Respectively, replication possibilities of the demo-cases will
be studied by the GIS-EMS tool.

4 Approach to achieve the deliverable

4.1 PRINCIPLE OF GIS BASED ENERGY MANAGEMENT TOOL
The content of the term Energy supply and demand management differs in domains of
the user. In the large cities provided with district heating system and several
cogeneration energy production plants, the main aim of the energy sector is to find
economically and environmentally best possible production structure and operational cogeneration between the plants and at the plants to cover energy consumption and
demand. An individual house owner thinks of a little bit different issues, even if the
economy and maybe also environmental impacts are the top issue.
The Concerto-cities in the Solution project could be defined as semi-urban communities,
while they are countryside or provincial towns. Typical features of these semi-urban
communities from energy management viewpoint are as follows:
There is a CHP-DH system or it is a potential alternative in the community
There are small scale and separated areal DH-systems or they are potential
alternative in the community
Substantial number of building and facilities classified to individual energy system.
Also some special energy and industry integrations can have a significant role in
the energy balance of the community
Single production units can have numerically and potentially major status in the
energy balances (Wind energy, hydropower, ground heat, etc.)
Individual decision makers (households, entrepreneurs, industry, services) have
the major role in energy management of the community
Open electricity market and electricity market legislation (related for example to
electricity distribution) have an important role in the local energy management
Relatively large changes (quantity and quality) in the energy system can be
expected in the near future.
These special features of the community energy system give an own special content for
the communal energy management system.
The whole area (Concerto zone) should be considered (centralised and distributed
and decentralised energy areas)
Yearly based energy management for the whole area
Operational/short term optimisation and management is needed for some energy
production/consumption areas (cogeneration, polygeneration, etc).

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GIS based Energy Management System: Model description

Geographical Information system (GIS) is needed in the EMS of the whole

community
The unit geographical area is a plot in the city plan also in energy management
Special development is needed for presentation of energy management
input/output
Energy networks are included to the EMS
The main results from the SU-EMS are: yearly based energy supply and demand
balances, CO2-emissions, network operation
Expert reasoning should be including into the operation with GIS-EMS-tool
The Figure 1 shows the structure of the GIS based energy management tool developed
for semi-urban communities to manage energy and environmental situation and
development in the whole city area. The tool consists of three functional levels and their
interaction.
GIS level provides data and information management and completes choice functions,
where detailed optimisation is not needed.
Modified optimisation level includes criteria creation phase, where decision principles are
treated for the energy solutions.
Master optimisation level is used to create the frames for the energy supply and demand
in cases where co- or polygeneration takes place. Another goal is to finalise the
optimisation of the plant after revised data from GIS-module.
In the presentation of the energy situation, GIS has an essential role. The results of the
various alternatives of energy arrangements can be collected to different layers of energy
maps and finally an entire energy solution for the area can be presented quantitatively
and qualitatively.
The forth element in the scheme is reasoning. This means that the experts have also
possibility to manage and make decisions during the planning process. This is necessary
in practical approaches of new energy structure creation.

Geografical information
Energy consumption
Networks
Direct supply-demand choices
Optimised supply-demand cases

GIS

Modified
optimisation
model

Master
optimisation
model

Optimesed
Operational
Performance

Reasoning
Fixing system

Application x
Application 2

Reasoning
Fixing system

E-map layer of
studied
application:
Capacity
Energy balances
CO2-balance
Operational
and
Total benefits

Communal
E-map
Capacity
Energy balances
CO2-balance
Monetary
consequences

Total
Optimisation
Performance

Figure 1. Scheme of GIS-based Energy management tool.

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GIS based Energy Management System: Model description

4.2 GENERAL SPECIFICATION

The Figure 2 below illustrates the basic concept the GIS-EMS application is based on. The
idea is to utilise the results and experiences gained from the optimisation and simulation
modelling results, use the GIS software to compile all the available data into a more
useful format and finally present the collected and calculated data concerning the
Concerto area in the City of Lapua while providing tools to effortlessly make additional
studies based on the material. Significant effort is laid out to make updating the
database as simple as possible.
Basically, GIS software is a tool used to illustrate numeric data in geographical context.
For example, energy (district heat, electricity, fuels) consumed for space heating and
consequent CO2 emissions produced in the Concerto area can be analysed in terms of
spatial distribution. Therefore, numeric data used in GIS analysis, whether being
collected from statistics or calculated by using simulation or optimisation, has to be
linked with actual geographical entities, mostly buildings, located in the Concerto area.
In the case of Lapua (or Finland in general), the most relevant value to be analysed
geographically in terms of energy is heat consumption (space heating and hot water) of
residential and commercial buildings, since spatial distribution of district heating (DH)
network strongly defines geographical properties of heating energy. Therefore, in the
exemplar case studies of this deliverable, merely heating of buildings is analysed, but
similar analysis could carried out in terms of electricity consumption in the case of
another Concerto area, provided that necessary numeric and geographical data is
available.

CHP / DH
Gasification
Biogas

Optimisation
models

Heat storages

Concerto area:
City of Lapua
GIS

Used as a tool
Maps
Databases

Building data
-

Solar energy

Bioboilers
Geothermal heat

Simulation
models

Type, size
Energy source and
technology
Specific
consumption

Concerto area:
City of Lapua
GIS results

Energy balances
CO2 balances
Scenarios
Planning
Management
Reporting
Updating data

Industrial processes

Oil & electricity

Figure 2. Basic structure and data flows of the GIS application.

4.3

SOURCE MATERIAL AND NUMERIC ESTIMATION

In this chapter validation of general properties and requirements of source material used
in GIS analysis for the Lapua case is represented as a generalised example, but however
methods for processing and validation of numeric data described here can be applied to
any Concerto area. A general rule of the more, the better can be stated in terms of
numeric data, however provided that all the data can be consistently linked to exact
buildings geographically.

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GIS based Energy Management System: Model description

4.3.1 GIS data sources

General geographical data obtained from the city of Lapua is illustrated in Figure 3. This
geographical information represents locations of e.g. waterways, road networks and
buildings. The most important aspect of this data illustrated in Figure 3 is the definition
of the Concerto area, since analysis is delimited to this area only. It is highly important to
validate the map projection of the provided geographical data in order to consistently
combine data from different sources. It must be noted that building data of Figure 3 only
includes type of building (commercial, residential, public services etc.) and area of the
geographical object located on the map. This area does not provide adequate information
for heating demand calculation purposes, since floor space must be used for space
heating estimation.

Figure 3. Concerto area (blue line) of Lapua.

Another important source of geographical data concerning district heating network is
obtained from local energy company Lapuan Energia. This data includes detailed
geographical information of the district heat pipelines and heat consumers. Numeric
consumption data (annual heat energy consumption) of each consumer is also separately
available and can be combined with spatial consumer data for data validation purposes.
Location of the district heating network can be seen in Figure 4. District heating network
is highly important from the GIS analysis point of view, since this network connects
buildings in the Concerto area to the most important potential renewable energy utilizer

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GIS based Energy Management System: Model description

of the area, the CHP plant using biomass for heat and electricity production. GIS analysis
can be highly efficient tool for the district heat producing energy company in search of
potential expansion of the DH network.

Figure 4. Grid used (250m) for analysis of geographical distribution in Concerto area of Lapua and
spatial data of buildings (blue dots) and district heating network (red line).
In order to effectively analyse heating sector in terms of geographical distribution, the
Concerto area must be divided into smaller fields. In the case of Lapua, a geographical
square grid of size 250m is used for aggregation of numeric data. This grid subject to
Concerto area is illustrated in Figure 4, and it appears that the size of the grid is suitable
for this area. Obviously, grid size can be easily modified for other Concerto areas. The
main purpose of the grid is to calculate numeric data for each grid square, e.g. total
emissions from heating or distribution of heating methods (DH, electricity, oil etc.).
Since building data of Figure 3 does not provide adequate numeric information for heat
consumption calculation purposes, another source must be used in the case of Lapua.
Population Register Centre provides accurate building data based on building permits.
This data includes several useful details for heating sector purposes:

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GIS based Energy Management System: Model description

Building location in coordinates

Building type (residential, commercial, public services)
Building year
Built floor area
Floor area divided by use (residential use, other)
Heating method (DH, electricity, light fuel oil, wood, ground heat pump, other)
Geographical location of these buildings can be seen in Figure 4. It is evident that
majority of buildings is concentrated near city centre and also in the vicinity of the
district heating network.
4.3.2 Heat consumption of buildings
The calculation of heat consumption of the buildings in the Concerto area is based on raw
data on floor area and type of building in question, and a specific consumption per floor
area as a function of the year of construction.
The values for specific consumption are based on REMA model by VTT Technical Research
Centre of Finland and present the development of heating needs in Finnish buildings. The
Figure 5 below illustrates this development.
Residential

Commercial or public

Specific consumption (kWh(m2)

350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
1950

1960

1970

1980
1990
2000
Year of construction

2010

2020

Figure 5. Specific consumption as a function construction year.

As for the raw data from the Population Register Centre, some processing is needed to
refine the numbers into a more useful format. For each building, the total floor area is
first divided into residential and commercial/public areas by a ratio defined by the
recorded number of e.g. individual apartments to offices. This is naturally an oversimplification, but since there is no other systematic way to process data on the scale
that is needed here, it is unavoidable. The floor areas are then multiplied by the specific
consumption calculated according to the year of construction. If a year of major
renovation is stated in the raw data, this is too taken into account in the calculation with
a weighting of 25 % in the calculation of the specific consumption.
4.3.3 Areal fuel consumption and emissions
After each building has been estimated in terms of heat consumption, one important
aspect from Concerto point of view is to calculate fuel consumption and specific CO2
emissions for each building. This calculation is straight-forward in the case of light fuel

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GIS based Energy Management System: Model description

oil, wood or other combustible fuels. These boiler efficiencies and CO2 emission factors
are used in the case of Lapua:
Light fuel oil: 80% (efficiency), 0.266 kg/kWh (emission)
Wood: 80% (efficiency), 0 kg/kWh (emission)
Heavy fuel oil: 80% (efficiency), 0.284 kg/kWh (emission)
Natural gas: 80% (efficiency), 0.199 kg/kWh (emission)
However, electricity (in heating) and district heating must be treated in a different matter
in terms of CO2 emission calculation. Direct electricity heating has efficiency of 100%,
but in case of heat pumps electricity efficiency of 300% can be used in order to calculate
electricity consumption. Since electricity used in heating is in Finland supplied by the
national grid, linked to the Nordic electricity market, an estimate for the emission factor
of the grid electricity must be used. In the case of Finland emission factor of 0.245
kg/kWh can be used1.
Consumption of district heating in a building is naturally calculated by using efficiency of
100%, however, estimation of emission factor for DH is more complex issue due to the
nature of heat produced in CHP plant. Since end-use of DH in the buildings is available
and pipeline losses can be calculated (by using robust estimation or by using simulation
tool), total production of DH in the local energy company is therefore obtained. If in
some case DH is produced by a heat plant, emission factor is calculated simply by using
plant efficiency and fuel mix data.
However, in the case of Lapua, DH is produced by a local energy company which utilises
CHP plant combined with fuel oil boiler (during peak demand) and bio-boiler (during CHP
shutouts). Therefore, straight-forward calculation by using annual values is not possible
as in the heat plant case, and an hourly optimisation model, as illustrated in Figure 2,
must be used in order to calculate fuel consumption and emission factor of DH
production. Utilisation of this optimisation model is represented in Deliverable 1.3.2.
Also, in the case CHP plant fuels (and thereby emissions) must be divided between
produced electricity and DH. Energy based allocation or benefit allocation can be used.
In the case of Lapua, emission factor of DH depends highly on the fuel mix (peat fuel and
wood chips). Currently Lapuan Energia uses 50% peat fuel in fuel mix for CHP and bioboiler. However, in order to turn in a renewable direction, target for using 15% share of
peat fuel has been set. In these cases, optimisation model provides (by using energy
based allocation for CHP fuels) following emission factors:
50% peat fuel: 0.251 kg/kWh
15% peat fuel: 0.069 kg/kWh
If there are different scenarios to be analysed in the course of GIS utilisation, e.g. in the
case of DH network extension to be considered, these scenarios can be run through the
DH production model or by making sensitivity analysis via several optimisation cases and
constructing a function for fuel use and emissions to be applied to building data. Overall,
in order to sustain robustness and ease-of-use from the GIS software point of view the
basis of the GIS analysis should be in the modularity of the building data, not in
simulation or optimisation methods.

A value for Finland with emissions allocated for power production. Source: W. Graus, E. Worrell. (2010).
Methods for calculating CO2 intensity of power generation and consumption: A global perspective. Energy
Policy.
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GIS based Energy Management System: Model description

4.4

IMPLEMENTATION IN GIS-EMS SOFTWARE

4.4.1 Concerto area energy balances and total emission analysis

Provided that adequate data of Concerto area buildings is available, the process of GIS
analysis can be relatively straight-forward, of course, depending on the complexity of
required results. As long as building data is transformed into reasonably aggregated form
in the GIS software (e.g. aggregation according grid squares), several graphical result
forms can be created.
Geographical details illustrated in Figure 3 such as waterways, road networks etc. are not
used in GIS analysis per se, but they can be utilised as visual aids for clarifying certain
locations. Overall, only the building data (spatial and numerical data for each building),
definition of Concerto area and geographical grid are necessarily required for the analysis
described in this deliverable.

Figure 6. Suggestive process chart for phases of implementation of GIS analysis.

In Figure 6 the principles of GIS analysis process are illustrated. There are five major
phases in the GIS process, during which building data in Excel file is transformed into
visualisations of Concerto area energy situation:
1. Formatting and validation of building data: In this phase raw building data is
examined and transformed into more compact and well-defined form. Location
coordinates are examined and validated in terms of given map projection.
Irrelevant objects are removed and possible missing data is examined and
replaced with estimations if necessary.
2. Modeling and calculation of energy data: In this phase building data from
phase 1 is used to calculate heating energy for each building. Calculation of heat

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GIS based Energy Management System: Model description

energy consumption is described in Chapter 4.3.2. Estimated efficiencies of

heating technologies are used to calculate fuel consumption for each building
(electricity and DH are considered fuels at this stage). These fuel consumption
values and emission factors of each fuel (including electricity and DH) are used for
calculating CO2 emissions of each building. Optimisation model is used for
estimation of DH emission factor if necessary. This phase produces Excel files with
fuel consumption, fuel type and emissions for each building.
3. Geocoding of building data: In this phase building data is imported into GIS
software which creates tables for numeric data and defines geographical location
for each building according to coordinates provided in the Excel file.
4. Aggregation of building data: In this phase building data from phase 3 is
aggregated into grid squares by summing fuel consumption for each fuel and
summing emissions over all the buildings locating in corresponding grid square.
This phase produces numeric data including total energy consumption per fuel
type and total emissions for each grid square.
5. Visualisation of the aggregated data: In this phase graphic tools of GIS
software are used in order to visualize e.g. energy balances or emissions from
heating geographically. Numerous options for visualisation are available, e.g.,
thematic maps or prism maps. Resulted visualised maps can be saved as pictures
or used otherwise.
It must be noted that this GIS analysis process applies in terms of details to heating
sector. However, process described in Figure 6 could also be applied to analysis of other
issues with minor tuning.
4.4.2 Planning of decentralised energy production and DH expansion with EMS
Building data and GIS analysis described in Subchapter 4.4.1 can be used in Energy
Management System approach of the GIS software. In this subchapter a suggestive
scheme for energy production planning is represented. It must be noted that process
described in Subchapter 4.4.1 is represented in detailed level, since it is already
implemented in the case of Lapua, however, planning tool described here is at the level
of methodical scheme and, therefore, GIS process cannot yet be described in great
detail.
In Figure 7 the principles of GIS process for decentralised power plant planning are
illustrated. This chart is merely an illustrative suggestion for GIS analysis tool and it must
be refined in terms of technical details when implemented with GIS software. There are
three major distinctive phases in the GIS process:
1. Search for suitable location: In this phase results from GIS analysis described
in Subchapter 4.4.1 are used for search of a suitable location for decentralised
power plant. For example, thematic map of total heating fuel consumption can be
used in analysis of high areal energy consumption density. GIS analysis of energy
balances are used here only as aid and location can be selected regardless of
energy density value of the location.
2. Selection of location and energy data management: In this phase a number
of grid squares (one or more) inside the Concerto area are selected as a tentative
locations for further study. In the GIS user interface selection of the squares
brings out information about energy consumption of buildings in area selected.
Also, the user interface enables settings for parameters, such as type and
capacity of a possible power plant, share of consumption to be covered. These
parameters are used with cost and energy based functions constructed from
several results of optimisation and simulation runs. User can review these
functions as graphs and effect of chosen parameters on function value.

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GIS based Energy Management System: Model description

3. Detailed presentation of location: In this phase selected location is reviewed in

closer manner with detailed data in terms of costs (operational and investment
costs), energy and emissions. If after considering the presented data user labels
the selected location as feasible, a new scenario file for building data with updated
information in terms of new heating method can be created for other GIS analysis
purposes. If the location is infeasible, it is discarded and the GIS process can start
from scratch.

Figure 7. Schematic process chart for spatial planning of decentralised energy production plant.
In the phase two of the process, on top of a range of different energy producing
technologies, district heating network is also studied in detail either as an extension to
the main system in Lapua or as a separate areal network. For this purpose, the scale and
efficiency of an imaginary network needs to be evaluated. This is accomplished by
utilising the network simulations done during the earlier phases of the project, and with
knowledge on the Finnish systems in general. The key indicators here are two definitions
of energy density, MWh,a/m and sometimes kWh,a/m2, (yearly energy consumption per
district heating pipe meter, and energy consumption per land area) and the relative heat
losses (ratio of losses to needed production) in the system. The seemingly loose but in
principal sound relation exists between the energy density and heat losses; heat losses
start to increase rapidly when energy density becomes lower, see Figure 8.
By applying these indicators to Ala-Nurmo, a residential area part of the Concerto area
with an estimated heat demand of 1 100 MWh, utilising a preliminary network design for
the area we can calculate the energy density to be 0.74 MWh/m. According to the trend
line in Figure 8 we get a relative heat loss of 18 %. This is a reasonable estimate, but as
can be seen in the illustration, the specific value of the heat losses can vary a lot from a
system to another. The current trend line is set up using data on all Finnish district
heating systems and will be revised to better deal with the operational environment in

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GIS based Energy Management System: Model description

Lapua by making a few representative simulations with different types and sizes of areal
networks.
0.35

Heat losses (-)

0.30
0.25
0.20
0.15
0.10
0.05
0.00
0

3
4
5
Heat density (MWh/m)

Figure 8. Heat losses and energy densities of Finnish district heating systems.
Another example of useful relations in comparing different options are profit curves as a
function of plant capacity. The specific example illustrated below in Figure 9 describes
just this; the annual operational profit corresponding to a certain capacity. The example
is from Hrsil SME-area, where a gasifier CHP plant is supplying energy for the
surrounding area. The curve is of course case specific one for Hrsil, but it illustrates
both the problem and a solution to issues always present in designing, sizing the plant
and analysing profitability.
52 000

Annual profit ()

50 000
48 000
46 000
44 000
42 000
40 000
200

250

300

350

400

450

500

550

Gasifier capacity (kW)

Figure 9. Annual profit curve for a gasifier and CHP engine in Hrsil SME-area.
The profit curve illustrated in Figure 9 only applies to Hrsil case in which heat demand
is based on specific consumption estimates for buildings linked to the CHP plant.
Therefore, this curve applies to fixed heat load only (and synthesis gas consumption).
In the general case examined by GIS planning tool, heat load will vary according to area
selected for analysis. Therefore, annual profit estimate should be a function of heat load
in addition to plant capacity. In Figure 10 an example of this kind of function is
illustrated. This function is based on several optimisation runs performed on gasifier and
CHP plant producing heat (with supporting oil boiler) for local demand (hourly

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GIS based Energy Management System: Model description

consumption data based on outdoor temperature) and electricity to grid with feed-in
tariff being effective.

Figure 10. Annual operational profit of gasifier and CHP engine as function of gasifier capacity (kW)
and total annual heat load (MWh).
Baseline case for the optimisation is the following:
Gasifier capacity: 335 kW
CHP capacity: 100 kWe, 200 kWh
Annual heat load: 1170 MWh (peak load 411 kW)
No extraneous synthesis gas utilisation
The baseline case above was varied with factor of 50% to 150% subject to both plant
capacity and annual heat load. In the case of varying plant capacity, ratio of CHP engine
capacity to gasifier capacity was fixed. It is evident from Figure 10 how increasing heat
load affects profitability of low capacity plant, since more and more heat must be
produced by oil boiler and energy entrepreneur sells produced heat for a price lower than
oil price (see Deliverable D2L.4.1). It is also evident that for different heat loads profit
curve as function of plant capacity follows roughly the trend of Figure 9.
In the planning tool described in Figure 7 functions similar to Figure 10 are used for cost
estimation of planned energy production plant. It must be noted that this function must
be constructed separately for each Concerto area by using country-specific hourly heat
consumption data for optimisation.
4.4.3 Geographical representation of local energy production
Geographical locations of energy production units in the Concerto area can be illustrated
easily as a separate extra layer in map interface of GIS software. As there are merely
few production plants in area this size, these units can be managed as separate units as
opposed to GIS processing of thousands of consumers (buildings). These power plants,
e.g. CHP plants, wind mills, heat plants, can have numeric data concerning technical
parameters, annual heat and electricity production or emissions attached to the unit
illustrated in the map window for merely information purposes.

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4.5

CASE STUDIES

In this deliverable results from case studies are based on GIS analysis (described in
4.4.1) of energy balances of Lapua Concerto area. These case studies are illustrative
examples of performance GIS tool and are not meant to be examined in numeric detail.
However, in order to enlighten the energy balance of the Concerto area, total annual
values of heat energy consumption (not fuel energy consumption) for each heating
method estimated from validated statistics as described in subchapter 4.3.2 can be
represented:
District
heating

Light fuel
oil

Electrical
heating

Wood based
heating

Other heating
methods

Total heat
consumption

44 887 MWh

30 538 MWh

28 777 MWh

8 544 MWh

5 510 MWh

118 256 MWh

First part of case study consists of GIS analysis on potential expandability of district
heating network. In Figure 11 thematic map of DH consumption in Concerto area is
represented. It is distinctive how areas around DH network have high energy densities as
usually is the case in communal district heating infrastructure. DH consumption is clearly
concentrated in city centre but DH network is expanded also into outer regions of Lapua.
In order to analyse potential areas for DH network extension, buildings using other
heating methods must be examined in terms of location subject to DH network. In
Figures 11-14 heat energy consumption of buildings is illustrated in the case of major
other heating fuels, i.e. light fuel oil, electrical heating and wood fuel. These figures point
out that there seems to be lucrative areas for DH producer to expand to. Especially oil
heating is still used in significant volume even in the grid squares containing DH network.
From the renewable point of view replacing wood fuel with DH produced partly by peat
fuel is not reasonable, and furthermore areas with high wood fuel density seem to be
located in outer regions of Lapua. In the case of electrical heating there are distinctive
coherent areas of high density, especially south of city centre, to be considered. It is,
however, always a matter of costs when it comes to investments on expansive
infrastructure. These cost effects should be analysed in compliance with this GIS
analysis.
Second part of the demonstrative case study is a scenario analysis of total emissions in
Concerto area in terms of differentiation of parameters for heating methods. In this case
building data was modified for district heating and electrical heating. There are two
different scenarios to be analysed:
1. Base scenario: Original building data with 50% peat fuel share in CHP fuel mix
and electrical heating remaining unchanged.
2. Renewable scenario: Peat fuel share in CHP fuel mix lowered into 15% and all
the electrical heating replaced by air heat pumps with ceteris paribus in terms of
other building data.
In Figure 15 prism map of total emissions in Lapua Concerto area in base scenario is
illustrated. It must be noted that this prism map is covered with layer consisting of
thematic map of DH use from Figure 11 in order to visualise location of DH network in
terms of emissions. It is obvious that high volume of DH produced mainly by peat fuel is
responsible of major part of CO2 emissions. Total CO2 emission values for Concerto area
for the base scenario are 41.5 kt and 27.7 kt for the renewable scenario.
However, as is evident from Figure 16 where renewable scenario is used, increase of
wood fuel in CHP production has significant effect on total emissions. Change from
electrical heating to heat pumps is not as evident due to the lower volume of electrical
heating when compared to DH. The purpose of this GIS example is to demonstrate
scenario based analysis in terms of energy balance of Concerto area. It is relatively
effortless to produce this kind of scenario analysis with consistent and valid building data.

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Figure 11. District heat consumption and DH network in Concerto area of Lapua.

Figure 12. Light fuel oil based heat consumption in Concerto area of Lapua.

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GIS based Energy Management System: Model description

Figure 13. Electricity consumption (for heating) in Concerto area of Lapua.

Figure 14. Wood fuel based heat consumption in Concerto area of Lapua.

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GIS based Energy Management System: Model description

Figure 15. Prism map of CO2 emissions in base scenario with DH consumption surface.

Figure 16. Prism map of CO2 emissions in renewable scenario with DH consumption surface.

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GIS based Energy Management System: Model description

4.6

PRELIMINARY RESULTS

The case study of Lapua above utilising GIS software in order to visualize energy
consumption and renewable potential was created as an example or a template for other
Concerto areas. This geographical analysis illustrates that having an extensive and
validated geographically linked numeric data concerning buildings of the area a robust
and streamlined process by using GIS software can be used in order to produce
distinctive and visual information about energy use, renewable energy or CO2 emissions.
This GIS process can also produce results for the residents of Concerto area, e.g., to be
shown on the project website.
For the GIS analysis of heat energy use and balances in any Concerto area, following
data is required:
1. Building data
Coordinates of the building (map projection type required)
Building type (residential, commercial, industrial, services etc.)
Floor area (m2)
Division of floor area by use (residential use, other)
Building year
Possible renovation year
Heating fuel type (DH, electricity, wood, fuel oil etc.)
Energy consumption data if available
2. Concerto area information
Geographical definition of area (in form usable by GIS software)
Grid or other area division
3. Energy data for heat energy calculation/simulation
Specific heat consumption as a function of construction year (kWh/m2,a)
Efficiencies for heating methods (boilers, heat pumps)
Emission factors for fuels and electricity (kg/kWh)
4. Energy data for district heating fuel/emission allocation
Emission factor of consumed district heat if available (kg/kWh)
CHP information (see Deliverable 1.3.2)
Heat plant data (efficiency, fuel mix)
Emission factors for fuels (kg/kWh)
In the case of Lapua the analysis was performed for heat energy only as an example.
However, this analysis can be also extended for electricity consumption and production if
necessary. GIS analysis of electricity consumption and production can be useful if there is
a closed electricity grid in the area with possibilities of expanding the grid considered
combined with decentralized local electricity producers. However, in the case of national
grid covering the area and centralized large scale electricity production, it is not
reasonable to analyse this issue other than by calculating geographical electricity
balances if necessary.

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GIS based Energy Management System: Model description

5 Conclusion
Significant ground work has been carried out in the effort of developing a GIS based EMS
tool envisaged in the deliverable description. The data base has been compiled and much
of the necessary refining of has data been done. A 250 meter grid presentation format
was chosen as means of illustrating the energy related data in the Concerto area, and for
this purpose, the aggregation of the more detailed data has been accomplished. While
the aggregated data is more meaningful for presentation purposes, the quality and level
of detail in the data base is unchanged and can be utilised when necessary.
The EMS tool is building on the results of the work done previously during the project,
utilising them wherever reasonable and presenting the results in a way that will benefit
the decision makers on a city level. The simulation and optimisation results will be linked
to the tool by using verified functions and relations. This combination and the
methodology of building on the past results enhance the results of the tool way past the
case specific studies carried out previously and represent a natural continuum for the
work accomplished so far.
In the next phase of the development process, a set of tools in form of MapBasic
Professional functions are implemented. These tools aim to make the updating of data
base effortless, to illustrate the results easily and to give the user means of carrying out
area specific studies, e.g. the extension of the district heating network or evaluating
different energy technologies in a specified area.

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