Urban Building Energy Models for the energy and economic analysis of building retrofit in residential buildings

The building energy sector accounts for approximately one-third of the greenhouse gas emissions in the EU, and the policies developed in recent years aim at achieving emission-neutrality in the building stock by 2050. In this context, the development of reliable and realistic models is crucial to support public policymakers to develop strategies to achieve those goals. The BETALAB research group of the Industrial Engineering Department at the University of Padova has developed an UBEM – EUReCA – to simulate consumption and emissions across the Municipality of Padova. In recent years, due to the implementation of fiscal incentive schemes, a significant number of energy efficiency interventions have been carried out, reducing the primary energy consumption and improving living conditions. With this work, a socio-economic analysis will be conducted, integrating energy performance data with household-level indicators: the model is refined with the interventions carried out over recent years – retrieved from the ENEA public database and the SIAPE database – in order to reconstruct the current state of the building stock and estimate the potential of further interventions, based on the starting EPC of buildings, projected emissions reductions and the households’ capacity to invest. The social dimension and energy poverty are central to the final analysis, reflecting the broader institutional commitment to ensuring efficient, healthy, and affordable housing for all.