Methods for Coordinating Optimization of Urban Building Clusters and District Energy Systems

In the face of increasingly severe global climate change, achieving zero-carbon development goals has gradually become a consensus across various industries. Enhancing the electrification level of building energy use and increasing the proportion of renewable energy applications are primary means to achieve zero-carbon development in the construction sector, which also imposes higher demands on energy system planning and operation. This study focuses on urban building clusters and district energy systems, proposing coordinated optimization methods for energy supply and demand. On the demand side, strategies such as utilizing energy storage from electric vehicles are applied to enhance the flexibility of building energy use, along with methods to improve building load leveling rates and increase renewable energy penetration rates. On the supply side, a dual-layer planning method is proposed for the optimal configuration and operation of district energy systems considering the construction of shared energy storage stations. Results indicate that the optimization methods for urban building clusters significantly improve the flexibility of building energy use, and different functional compositions of building clusters can enhance load leveling and renewable energy penetration rates to a certain extent. The dual-layer optimization method for district energy systems can further exploit the potential of building energy flexibility, thereby achieving a balance between economic and environmental benefits.