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Electrification in energy supply–demand plays a critical role in domestic heating and road transport, delivering an electrified community to reduce carbon emissions. This solution, however, places a significant power demand increase on the distribution networks. To ensure the security of electricity supply, an efficient energy system and energy demand reduction are essential. In this paper, a multi-vector community energy system, applying an electrified heating network, electric vehicle smart charging, community-scale peak shaving and photovoltaic (PV) generation, is demonstrated in three models to manage an electrified community. Firstly, a heating network model, comprising a central ground source heat pump, low-temperature district heating system, electric heaters and thermal storage, is established to measure the optimum distribution temperature. Next, an electrified community model illustrates hourly electricity demands and performances of a community energy system, which is then used to identify the required degree of housing thermal efficiency improvement (i.e., heating demand reduction). The third model evaluates decentralised PV/storage units to maintain the power demand below a targeted power. Modelling results show that the demand ratio of domestic hot water to space heating determines the distribution temperature, which indicates the temperature is increasing with growing housing thermal efficiency. Moreover, the electrification of a community could increase the peak power demand on the highest demand day by over five times, converting heating demands into electricity directly. This significant peak demand can be possibly reduced to only a 33% increase by employing a community energy system. The model of PV/storage units is validated through a 12-week assessment. Ultimately, a modelling tool is developed by assembling the mentioned models, providing four pathways to attain electrification. Users can adjust specific parameters and database to align with the local conditions. The results indicate the requirements of building a community energy system and electricity demands in the highest consumption period.

This paper was accepted for publication in International Journal of Ventilation in Aug 2016, and published online in Nov 2016., This work was also funded and supported by the European Union's Seventh Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement No 314283. ['HERB': www.euroretrofit.com/]; and the Innovate UK programme for 'Scaling Up Retrofit' under project No: 101609. ['PULSE': www.pulseairtest.com/]

This paper was published at 39th AIVC conference, held in Juan-Les-Pins, France, in September 2018, Part of this work was funded by the Mexican Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT).