Economic–Energy–Environmental Optimization of a Multi-Energy System in a University District

Luca Bacci, Enrico Dal Cin, Gianluca Carraro, Sergio Rech () and Andrea Lazzaretto
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Luca Bacci: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova, Via Venezia 1, 35131 Padova, Italy
Enrico Dal Cin: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova, Via Venezia 1, 35131 Padova, Italy
Gianluca Carraro: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova, Via Venezia 1, 35131 Padova, Italy
Sergio Rech: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova, Via Venezia 1, 35131 Padova, Italy
Andrea Lazzaretto: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova, Via Venezia 1, 35131 Padova, Italy

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 2, 1-26

Abstract: The integration of energy generation and consumption is one of the most effective ways to reduce energy-system-related waste, costs, and emissions in cities. This paper considers a university district consisting of 32 buildings where electrical demand is currently met by the national grid, and 31% of thermal demand is supplied by a centralized heating station through a district heating network; the remainder is covered by small, dedicated boilers. Starting from the present system, the goal is to identify “retrofit” design solutions to reduce cost, environmental impact, and the primary energy consumption of the district. To this end, three new configurations of the multi-energy system (MES) of the district are proposed considering (i) the installation of new energy conversion and storage units, (ii) the enlargement of the existing district heating network, and (iii) the inclusion of new branches of the electrical and heating network. The configurations differ in increasing levels of integration through the energy networks. The results show that the installation of cogeneration engines leads to significant benefits in both economic (up to −12.3% of total annual costs) and energy (up to −10.2% of the primary energy consumption) terms; these benefits increase as the level of integration increases. On the other hand, the limited availability of space for photovoltaics results in increased CO 2 emissions when only total cost minimization is considered. However, by accepting a cost increase of 8.4% over the least expensive solution, a significant reduction in CO 2 (−23.9%) can be achieved while still keeping total costs lower than the existing MES.

Keywords: multi-energy system (MES); university district; MILP; economic–energy–environmental optimization; decarbonization; primary energy saving (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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