User Manual

The user manual contains the full documentation on how the tool can be used and definitions of sliders and settings. To get better understanding of the results and how they are calculated go to Key-peformance indicators.

The serious game starts with a quick explanation of the project and challenges, than continues by explaining the user interface of the two models, and all interactive buttons the user can use.

Tool homepage

The homepage gives a quick explanation of the goal and perspective of the tool itself and what to expect when playing the challenges. Users can select to continue the ‘game’ playthrough or go directly to the two models.

Neighborhood model

The neighborhood model is created to give policy makers insight into the dynamics of sustainability strategies in local energy systems. The main focus is on modelling the local energy system, connecting households, local collective energy generation and energy grids. Users can explore the dynamics and trade-offs between different heating solution and run scenarios to compare individual versus collective heating solutions. Furthermore, the model is aimed at connecting transitions in heating, electricity, mobility and storage. It is vital to take this integral perspective to show the full potential and impact of these transitions on collective resources such as grids, but also on how they can alleviate constraints on these resources by for example smart charging.

For further documentation on the model itself see Neighborhood model.

Neighborhood information

The challenges defined are based on the Key-peformance indicators. These have been defined with stakeholders from the Province, grid operator and municpalities to make sure they allign to user requirements.

The challenges have been set-up in such a way they challenge the user to explore the full range of possiblities and KPIs. If the user is able to complete the challenges they have gained insight in when grid congestion becomes a critical problem in transition scenarios, how local flexibility can alleviate this, and how trade-offs in different heating systems lead to different costs but also different levels of congestion.

Three neighborhoods have been modelled. Sleeuwijk west is a typical Dutch village neighborhood, with a fairly distributed building stock in terms of building types and construction years. Afrikaanderbuurt midden is a typical 60s city neighborhood, with many poorly insulated apartments and terraced houses. Doornbos-Linie is similar to Afrikaanderbuurt midden a 60s neigbhorhood with poorly insulated appartments and terraced houses. However, unlike Afrikaanderbuurt midden part of the buildings are already heated by a high temperature district heating grid. See the table and picture underneath for better overview.

Neighborhoods

	Sleeuwijk west	Afrikaanderbuurt midden	Doornbos-Linie
Municipality	Altena	Tilburg	Breda
Inhabitants	3970	1930	4390
Households	1647	1080	2083
Current heating solution	Natural gas boilers	Natural gas boilers	Natural gas boilers + district heating
Neighborhood statistics	Get overview	Get overview	Get overview

Neighborhood user interface

Start-up

This section describes the user interface of the neighborhood model. To start-up the model click on the play icon and wait for the model to get build. To enhance visibility click on the full screen mode icon in the right bottom corner of the simulation screen.

Select neighborhood

The first step is selecting your prefered neighborhood. You can select a neighborhood by clicking on the neighborhood image, title or text. When you have selected the neighborhood click on ‘Start buurt simulatie’ for the model to build-up the neighborhood and start the simulation.

Home screen

The home screen during simulation consists of multiple sections.

1. The top left corner is aimed at Input settings. Here you can change the neighborhood heating and electricity strategies.

2. The bottom left corner is the legenda. This shows what the colors in the buildings represent

3. The center part of the screen contains the digital representation of the neighborhood with all buildings, grids (in green) and low-voltage transformers (green circels with black lines). Above the map you can see the current date. As the model is in continuous simulation the energy consumption depends on the model date.

4. The right part of the screen is for simulation Results. It also contains a button to go to the scenario comparison screen.

Input settings

Input settings can be changed by using the buttons and sliders in the top right corner of the screen. A full description of input settings can be found in the table Input settings underneath. The user can click on the buttons to change between heating and electricity solutions, and needs to unfold the heating supply and electricity sliders by clicking on the arrow.

Input settings

Setting	Range	Description
Heating demand
Insulation level	E-A	Sets insulation level to a minimum requirement (e.g. setting at C means all households below C would get insulation measures until level C)
Heating supply
Natural gas boilers	0 - # of households	Households with a natural gas boiler
Green gas boilers	0 - # of households	Households with a green gas boiler
Electric heat pump	0 - # of households	Households with an electric heat pump
Hyrbid heat pump	0 - # of households	Households with a hyrbid heat pump
Low-temperature district heating	0 - # of households	Households connected to a low-temp district heating grid
Medium-temperature district heating	0 - # of households	Households connected to a medium-temp district heating grid
Electric appliances
Rooftop PV	0 - # of households with PV potential	Households with rooftop PV
Induction cooking stove	0 - # of households	Households with induction cooking stove
Electric vehicle	0 - # of cars	Number of electric vehicles
Home battery	0 - # of households	Households with a home battery system
Charging strategy	Conventional – smart - bidirectional	Charging strategy that all households with an electric vehicle abide
Energy cost assumptions	2022 – 2022 – 2030	Assumptions on energy costs (electricity, natural gas, heat, fuels)*

note: energy cost settings can only be found in the scenario comparison screen. Furthermore they only include energy costs, no changes in investment costs have been assumed

Results

Results are presented when clicking the ‘resultaat’ button or when comparing multiple scenarios in the ‘vergelijk resultaten van meerdere scenario’s’ button. The resultaat screen presents results on a neighborhood level and on a househood level. The househood results are simply neighborhood results divided by the number of households in the neighborhood. For more information on the exact values see Key-peformance indicators.