Resumen de Energy sustainability of smart cities
The increase in the energy consumption of cities forecasted for the coming years makes these urban areas tend to be representative of the energy sustainability of their countries. In this sense, on the basis of the analysis of the management model and technological development "Smart City", the objective of this Thesis is to study the scalability from buildings to country level of the reduction in the energy consumption and the increase of the photovoltaic self-consumption .
The contribution of this Thesis is based on its relevance in the process of energy transition towards a decarbonised economy, more specifically,in the study of the flexibilization of the functioning of the electrical system through the empowerment of the consumer. Thus ,through its six chapters ,this Thesis addresses broad research focused on identifying the relationship between energy sustainability and "Smart Cities", based on the study of active demand management and the evaluation of the technical-economic performance of buildings and cities with almost zero energy consumption.
Chapter 1 serves as a preface to the research of the Thesis describing the relationship between the study of climate change, energy sustainability and the energy transition under the "Smart City" concept. In Chapter 2,"Contribution of Cities to Transition and Energy Sustainability" presents an analysis of the relationship between both concepts. The main contribution of this chapter is the presentation of the hypothesis of the representativeness of the energy sustainability of cities in the energy sustainability of their countries.
In Chapter 3, "Electricity strategic conservation through Smart Meters and Demand Side Response: A review", the contribution of the consumer to the flexibilization of the operation of the electrical system is studied. Based on a systematic review of references ,this chapter analyzes the results of the empirical works on the reduction of electricity consumption in households through the feedback of energy information.
Chapter 4,"A model for an economic evaluation of energy systems using TRNSYS", contributes with the description and validation of the economic calculation methodology of a model proposed to evaluate "Nearly Zero Energy Buildings " and distributed generation systems. Continuing with this contribution, in Chapter 5 "Economic evaluation of Nearly Zero Energy Cities", the economic evaluation model is applied to a simulation model of the energy performance of the urban energy self consumption, performance which is based on the distribution of energy among consumers, prosumers and energy producers and the increase in the consumption of local renewable energy resources to the detriment of the consumption of external sources. Both of these two Chapters 4 and 5 were published in the scientific journal Applied Energy (Q1).
Finally,Chapter 6 presents the conclusions of the research, highlighting among them that to maintain the balance of the security of electricity supply,equity in access to energy and environmental sustainability of the city-country, the evaluation of energy sustainability should be addressed from the effectiveness of the electric systems of "Smart Cities".
The research covered in this Thesis opens the possibility of addressing the following three research works in the future. 1) Designing a methodology to assess the energy sustainability of cities, which links the evaluation of the effectiveness of "Smart Energy Systems" with the evaluation of local and national climate targets. 2) Expanding the application of the "Nearly Zero Energy City" model to convert its results into an indicator of the flexibility of urban electrical systems. And 3) evaluating other cities in the world with this model, and including electrical storage systems and urban wind generation .
