Virtual test bed for strategic urban and energy planning through integrated digital models

To achieve the energy transition required to reach the national and global climate goals, new and innovative energy system solutions are needed.

At present, however, there is a strong path dependency in how urban environments and their energy and infrastructure systems are planned. The process is also divided on a number of different actors and is only partially integrated. This also applies to the use of various digital tools for planning and operation of buildings and systems.

Our proposed solution to this challenge is to develop an integrated virtual test bed that allows investigating, at an early stage in the planning process, the effects of new energy technology and energy system solutions in both existing and planned urban environments.

This virtual test bed will consist of an energy system model for cities where existing and new buildings, decentralized and centralized energy supply, an electrified transport system and heat and electricity distribution infrastructures are simulated and analyzed as a single system.

The tool will integrate digital models and data from a number of different parts of the civil engineering and energy sectors.

The tool will be an easy-to-use, directly applicable and at the same time strongly research-based digital tool that is useful for various actors within the field, but above all for actors who participate in an early strategic planning stage.

In the project, researchers at Uppsala University, specializing in buildings and energy systems for the built environment, collaborate with experts in strategic planning at Uppsala Municipality´s urban planning administration.

The virtual test bed will be integrated with Uppsala Municipality´s GIS-based tools and applied to the entire city´s existing buildings and systems in different future scenarios and on new areas in the urban development projects Södra Gunsta and Sydöstra stadsdelarna.