Technical Report 326, c4e-Preprint Series, Cambridge

Authors: Yi-Kai Tsai, Markus Hofmeister, Srishti Ganguly, Kushagar Rustagi, Yong Ren Tan, Sebastian Mosbach, Jethro Akroyd, and Markus Kraft*

Reference: Technical Report 326, c4e-Preprint Series, Cambridge, 2024

Associated Themes:
 

• Enhances building energy simulation using a dynamic knowledge graph approach
• Semantic, agent based approach to facilitate integration with various datasets
• Replaces some City Energy Analyst assumptions with live data for improved accuracy
• Building-level energy demand and solar potential estimate for municipal heat planning

This paper integrates building energy simulations with The World Avatar dynamic knowledge graph to address the imperative for accurate and comprehensive building energy data, demonstrating its practical applicability in energy planning scenarios such as municipal heat planning. The study employs the City Energy Analyst (CEA) software within an agent-based approach to enhance simulation accuracy by replacing the default input assumptions with real-time and location-specific input data from The World Avatar, including building geometry, usage, weather and terrain elevation. Results show that this data driven approach significantly improves the accuracy of simulated energy demands and solar potentials when benchmarked against external datasets from Pirmasens, Germany, and Singapore. Additionally, the study highlights the challenges in data acquisition and processing for municipal heat planning, in alignment with the German Heat Planning Act, emphasising the importance of leveraging dynamic knowledge graphs to facilitate seamless data integration and interoperability. For Pirmasens, a mid-sized city in Germany, we demonstrate that the CEA agent is able to support municipal heat planning by providing highly granular data on the heating demand and the solar potentials for heat generation. We also conduct an economic analysis to examine the cost implications and energy storage requirements associated with the installation of solar collectors, and identify zones in the city with high solar suitability, thereby supporting supporting effective and informed municipal heat planning.

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