Planning of Municipal Energy Systems

With regard to the energy transition and targeted reduction of energy-related CO2 emissions, the necessary transformation of the energy system will bring about considerable changes and challenges in consumers' homes and work environments. While the focus of previous efforts in Germany has been primarily on decarbonizing the energy industry, far-reaching changes will also be necessary for the transportation and heating sectors. The heating sector in particular accounts for almost 50% of Germany's total energy consumption and is considered a key building block for achieving climate targets. The decarbonization of heat supply, which must be viewed on a more communal -rather than individual- basis requires emphasis on a conversion to renewable energy sources and a focus on efficiency and sufficiency measures. The coupling of formerly independent energy sectors, such as the heating and electricity sectors, can hold great synergy potentials in this regard.

In cooperation with the IAEW institute of the RWTH Aachen University, the Fraunhofer Center Digital Energy develops data-driven implementation strategies for the energy modernization of buildings, neighborhoods, and even entire communities and cities. By using field-tested simulation tools and methods, integrated neighborhood concepts are developed in the context of potential studies and investment decisions are evaluated for municipal heat and electricity planning. Our services include:

Data-driven inventories of buildings and infrastructures

• Creation of digital images of local energy systems incl. building stock for planning purposes
• Data acquisition, processing and synthesis from existing systems (e.g. GIS systems, consumption data,...) and from publicly available data (e.g. ALKIS, Census, LOD, OSM databases,...)

Determination of building-level heat requirements, generation potentials and GHG emissions for your municipality

• Energy cadaster: development of energy demand maps for municipal planning
• Emission register: Preparation of local emission maps for municipal planning
• Solar cadaster: potential maps for the expansion of photovoltaic and solar thermal energy in the municipality (f.i. as an informational service for citizens)

Panning of municipal energy systems

• Development of target goals for your municipal energy system (electricity, gas, heat,...)
• Development of transformation pathways and staggered investment decisions towards a local and renewable energy system
• Economic, ecological and technological assessment of investment decisions and concepts

The underlying questions equally concern municipal administrations, public utilities and network operators as central stakeholders. We show within the framework of studies which solutions are available to you through municipal energy system planning (electricity, gas, heat,...) and which investment decisions make the most sense from a technical, ecological and economic point of view. This forms a sound basis for strategic decisions concerning the future of local energy supply and the sustainability of your target strategies and business models.