Development of a citywide UBEM to support heat planning in Kiel

Abstract

This paper presents the development of a citywide Urban Building Energy Model (UBEM) tailored for communal heat planning in the city of Kiel. We followed the common UBEM development approach, starting from building local building archetypes. Then the building stock is classified into these types. Energy demand of the resulting building models was simulated using EnergyPlus. Despite using just one set of simulation input parameters for building archetypes so far and despite relying on average parameter values from existing standards and scientific literature, the resulting heat demand closely aligns with reported values and actual energy consumption data in the city. The dataset now acts as an important reference for the city’s ongoing communal heat planning. However, running the citywide UBEM simulation requires extensive computational resources, time and storage, highlighting the need for more efficient simulation and data management methods. Our future efforts aim to improve these aspects to better support ongoing heat planning in Kiel and other communities in the region.