In this paper, the results of a feasibility analysis are summarized to assess the energy, economic, and environmental benefits of electrification and renewable energy integration for an urban district of Old City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The analysis utilizes on hourly electrical and thermal loads obtained for several building types that are representatives of the building stock that make-up the selected commercial district. First, the energy demand for the district is reduced through the implementation of cost-effective energy efficiency measures (EEMs) appropriate for Philadelphia’s climate. Then, a combination of distributed generation (DG) systems including wind, photovoltaics, and hydropower are evaluated to determine optimized hybrid systems that meet the energy demand of non-electrified and electrified district. The analysis indicates that the implementation of common and proven EEMs to all the district buildings can reduce its annual energy consumption by 13% as well as CO~2~ emissions by 13.8%. These EEMs are estimated to be cost-effective based on the current electricity price of \$0.082/kWh offered by Philadelphia’s utility, PECO. Through cost optimization analysis, a hybrid DG system combining wind and hydropower connected to the grid is found to lower the cost of energy for the non-electrified district to \$0.075/kWh, lower than the current PECO rate, with the added benefit to lower carbon emissions by 11.7%. Moreover, the analysis considered the case of electrified district by retrofitting all the buildings to use heat pumps as alternative systems to provide hot water and space heating using electricity instead of natural gas. The life cycle costs that account for the cost of electrification are estimated to be 3.5% lower than those of non-electrified district. Moreover, the analysis results demonstrate that the implementation of electrification and EEMs reduces the electricity usage by 14% and peak demand by 19.5% as well as CO~2~ emissions by 18%. Through cost optimization to design a hybrid DG system that can meet energy demands of the electrified district, wind and hydropower connected to the grid is found to achieve a cost of energy of \$0.074/kWh and carbon emissions reduction of 34.9% compared to the scenario where the grid is used to meet all the electricity demand of the district. Using a series of sensitivity analyses, it is determined that wind and hydropower capital costs would need to increase by at least 1.8 times for either system to become not cost-effective compared to the utility grid indicating that hybrid distributed renewable energy systems can meet sustainably the energy needs of the urban district in Philadelphia.


Benefit Cost Analysis of Electrification of Urban Districts: Case Study of Philadelphia, Pa

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Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IMECE/IMECE2020/volume/84478

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