Smart Quarter Durlach

The aim of the cooperative project is the design, implementation and evaluation of an innovative energy supply system to efficiently supply five, existing multi-family homes located in the Durlach district in the City of Karlsruhe.

The energy concept consists of PV systems on all building roofs, two heat pumps (HP) and a natural gas cogeneration plant with a local heat line. To operate economically, the electricity generated by the PV and CHP systems should be consumed locally by the heat pumps and the tenants. The ultimate goal is to decrease the primary energy consumption and the associated CO₂ emissions by half.

In the future, the energy supply concept is to be used in city districts and neighborhoods that are unable to connect to a district heating supply.

The five multi-family buildings with 160 apartments (built in 1960 and partially modernized in 1995) are currently supplied by natural gas boilers and the public electricity grid.

The new energy supply is based on a smart combination of existing technologies. All of the buildings will have PV modules mounted on the roof. Three of the buildings will be connected to a local heat line supplied by two CHP units. The other two buildings will each have an innovative heat pump system: a heat pump with external heat source (air, ground)  which is being developed in the HEAVEN research project, and a heat pump with photovoltaic-thermal, or PVT, collectors as the sole heat source.

All systems are connected, making electricity generated from the PV or CHP system the preferred source. This minimizes the need to purchase electricity from the public grid. At the same time, the  CHP operation is optimized in order that as much electricity as possible is used locally. To this end, smart operation management strategies are developed, implemented and tested in an intelligent energy management system (EMS).

The innovative concept for city quarters and neighborhoods which contains heat pumps, photovoltaics and CHP is expected to be implemented by mid-2020. Once installed, the operation will be monitored in detail to determine the energy efficiency and CO₂ savings during real-life operation. After successful testing, the energy concept can be transferred to other city quarters with existing multi-family buildings. Such concepts are an important step towards improving energy efficiency in the building stock and decarbonizing the energy supply.

The Smart Quarter Durlach project is part of the networking goup "LowEx in Existing Buildings".