An evaluation framework to support optimisation of scenarios for energy efficient retrofitting of buildings at the district level

Abstract

Energy-efficient retrofitting of buildings has become essential to achieve the environmental objectives of the European Union’s (EU) strategies towards reducing carbon emissions and energy dependency on fossil fuels. When tackling retrofitting projects, the issue of scale becomes essential as sometimes this can determine the sustainability of the project. Therefore, a comprehensive approach is essential to ensure effective decision-making. A platform has been designed within the EU funded OptEEmAL project to support stakeholders in this process, providing functionalities that can automatically model and evaluate candidate retrofitting alternatives considering their priorities, targets and boundary conditions. A core element of this platform is the evaluation framework deployed which implements a multi-criteria decision-making approach to transform the priorities of stakeholders into quantifiable weights used to compare the alternatives. As a result, more informed decisions can be made by the stakeholders through a comprehensive evaluation of the candidate retrofitting scenarios. This paper presents the approach followed to develop and integrate this evaluation framework within the platform as well as its validation in a controlled environment to ensure its effectiveness.