A SYSTEMATIC APPROACH FOR OPTIMIZING THE DECARBONIZATION PATHWAY OF CITIES

In the context of rapidly changing environment, the European Union aims at achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. This ambitious target calls for the decarbonization of the energy systems serving cities and municipalities. In light of this requirement, this work proposes an approach for the optimal design of Aggregated Energy Systems (AESs) serving cities and large energy districts featuring multiple design steps over the entire planning horizon. The approach is based on a comprehensive and detailed Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model, including different types (e.g., modular/non-modular, fixed/variable size) of units with accurate part-load performance curves and co-firing options (e.g., ICE burning a biomethane-hydrogen mixture), buildings renovation, and DHN installation. The developed MILP has been applied to Vigolzone, a small municipality located in northern Italy, for the planning horizon 2025-2062. Two scenarios have been analyzed, including strict environmental constraints and the aim of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. Such scenarios are compared with a baseline scenario in which no environmental constraints are considered. Results show that a very high decarbonization can be achieved for Vigolzone due to the large availability of local biomass and biomethane with respect to the energy demands. Despite the DHN results to be not economically viable, due to the low energy density of Vigolzone, the conducted analysis shows that the DHN installation would not excessively increase the net present cost of the decarbonization pathway while further decreasing the CO2 emissions.