Energy & Buildings 225 (2020) 110314

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Energy & Buildings

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enb

Applications, evaluations and supportive strategies of distributed energy

systems: A review
Qingmei Wen, Gang Liu, Zhenghua Rao, Shengming Liao ⇑
School of Energy Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410083, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The solution to energy shortage and environmental contamination greatly relies on efficient energy tech-
Received 22 April 2020 nologies and the introduction of renewable energy resources. Distributed energy system (DES) – a type of
Revised 9 July 2020 system located at or near its end-users and characterized by multi-generation and an emphasis on clean
Accepted 15 July 2020
energy and low emissions – thus has been increasingly attracting attention over these years. However,
Available online 31 July 2020
there is yet no systematic analysis for DES about its various applications, multi-facet appraisal, and
endeavors from different regions to promote its development. Therefore, this study reviews the related
Keywords:
researches published over the past decade and mainly focuses on three perspectives of DES, i.e. applica-
Distributed energy system
Application
tions, evaluations, and supporting strategies of different regions. The application is detailed from the indi-
Performance evaluation vidual building level, district level, and region level. The individual building-level application includes
Criteria house-level application and industrial building-level application, while the district-level application
Supportive strategy includes neighborhood-level application and community-level application. The methods and criteria
Challenge for DES performance evaluation are summarised. The criteria are discussed from energetic, environmen-
tal, and economic aspects. Different supportive strategies are analyzed in several developed countries and
developing countries. Finally, several potential challenges faced by DES development are presented,
based on the above analysis of applications, evaluations, and strategies. This review hopes to offer some
references for future research on DES.
Ó 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Literature search. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3. Application of DES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.1. Clarification of terms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.2. Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.2.1. Building level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.2.2. District level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.2.3. Region level. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4. Performance evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.1. Evaluation methodologies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4.2. Evaluation criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5. Supporting strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5.1. America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5.2. Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5.3. European countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5.3.1. Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5.3.2. Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5.3.3. Britain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: smliao@csu.edu.cn (S. Liao).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2020.110314
0378-7788/Ó 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
2 Q. Wen et al. / Energy & Buildings 225 (2020) 110314

Nomenclature

ATCR annual total cost saving ratio GSHP ground source heat pump
CHP Combined Heating & Power MCFC molten carbonate fuel cell
CCHP Combined Cooling, Heating & Power PEM(FC) proton exchange membrane (fuel cell)
CDER CO2 emission reduction ratio PESR primary energy saving ratio
DER(s) distributed energy resource(s) PV photovoltaic
DES(s) distributed energy system(s) SOFC solid oxide fuel cell

5.3.4. Poland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5.4. Iran . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5.5. China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5.6. African countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5.6.1. Egypt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5.6.2. Nigeria. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6. Challenges. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
7. Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Funding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Declaration of Competing Interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Appendix A. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

1. Introduction needed to analyze DES development from the application, perfor-

Recent years have witnessed a rapid depletion of fossil fuels and
severe environmental pollution. Therefore, there is a desperate
need to find alternatives to fossil fuels and take advantage of
state-of-the-art techniques to enhance energy efficiency. Cur-
rently, the DES has attracted much attention. Different from con-
ventional energy supply systems where productions are usually
distant from users, DES is defined as a kind of energy system
located at or near its end-users and characterized with high-
efficiency poly-generation systems, distributed renewable energy
technologies, and smaller energy transmission network(s) than
the conventional one. The poly-generation systems can be Com-
bined Heating & Power (CHP) system, Combined Cooling, Heating
& Power (CCHP) system, and so on [1,2]. Energy cascading utiliza-
tion can be realized as possible by the poly-generation process in
DES [3]. The renewable energy resources utilized by DES usually
involve solar energy [4,5], wind energy [6], bioenergy [7,8],
geothermal energy (in form of ground-source heat pump) [9].
Therefore, DES has been widely recognized as a promising scenario
to fully use local resources and renewable energy resource, and
thus avoids energy loss during transmission and reduces emissions
as much as possible [10]. The main equipment applied in DES
involves prime mover, heat recovery device, thermally activated
facility (e.g. absorption chiller) [11] and heat exchanger, and elec-
trical chiller and energy storage device are also often applied to
improve the comprehensive efficiency of DES [12,13]. Fig. 1 [10]
shows the schematic diagram of DES. The local heating pipeline
network and/or electricity transmission network is also concerned
in large DES. The prime mover applied in DES mainly consists of
internal combustion engine [14], gas turbine [15], gas engine
[16], steam turbine [17], fuel cell [18] and Stirling engine [19], etc.
Recently some reviews of DES development have been done.
Han et al. [1] reviewed the DES status in China from four aspects
including system optimization, development influence factor,
application, and polices. Ma et al. [20] focused on the district load
forecast modeling for a distributed energy system. However, nei-
ther the level of DES application nor the method of performance
evaluation has been discussed clearly. Besides, DES also has been
developing rapidly in some African countries [21], apart from
China and the developed countries. Therefore, further work is
mance evaluation, and polices. The necessity is also illustrated by
Fig. 2, which shows that the sum of the published articles is 311
and the sum of citations is up to 2 885 in Web of Science when
‘‘distributed energy system” is set as search and timespan is set
as 2010–2019. Specifically, the sum of published articles within
2014–2019 is up to 222, accounting for 71% of the total articles
published within 2010–2019.
This study mainly focuses on the DES application in different
levels, the method, and criteria used for DES performance evalua-
tions and the supportive strategies implemented by different
regions, aiming at providing a structured review for the current
discussion on DES. The study is organized in the following struc-
tures. Section 2 describes the method utilized in the literature
search. Section 3 details the application in three levels including
individual building level, district level, and region level. The indi-
vidual building-level application consists of house-level applica-
tion and industrial building-level application, while the district-
level application consists of neighborhood-level application and
community-level application. In Section 4, the methodologies and
criteria for performance evaluation are discussed. The criteria are
analyzed from three aspects including energy, environment and
economy, and the most used criteria are summarised. In Section 5,
supportive strategies for DES development implemented in the
developed countries and developing countries are studied and
compared. Section 6 offers three potential challenges that are faced
by future DES development, based on the above analysis.
2. Literature search
For the purpose of this review, Web of Science, Google Scholar
and CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure) electronic
databases were used for searching relevant studies. The search
was conducted using the following terms: ‘‘distributed energy sys-
tem” or ‘‘CHP” or ‘‘CCHP” or ‘‘cogeneration” or ‘‘trigeneration” used
as DES search topics for clarification of terms; ‘‘house” or ‘‘residen-
tial”, and all DES search topics mentioned above for house-level
DES application; ‘‘district” and all DES search topics for district-
level application; ‘‘town” or ‘‘city”, and all DES search topics for
region-level application of DES; ‘‘energetic” or ‘‘energy”, and all
 Q. Wen et al. / Energy & Buildings 225 (2020) 110314
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of DES [10].
Fig. 2. Distribution of SCI papers with the topic of ‘‘distributed energy system”.
DES search topics for the energy evaluation of DES, and a similar
method used for the environmental and economic evaluation
respectively; ‘‘America” or ‘‘US”, ‘‘strategies”, and all DES search
topics for American strategies, and a similar method used for
3
Germany, Japanese, Chinese, Egyptian and Nigerian strategies
respectively. The search time span was set as 2010–2019.
Researches about DES published in English were included, with
several excellent published in Chinese. Additional studies from
both the reference lists of these identified articles and the recom-
mendation for similar articles were also searched. The selection of
original studies was based on the inspection of the title and
abstract of articles in search results. Then, potentially eligible arti-
cles were perused to find the information that this review needs.
3. Application of DES
3.1. Clarification of terms
There is no consensus definition of distributed energy system
yet. However, based on the relationships among CCHP, distributed
energy resources (DER), on-site renewable energy system and dis-
tributed CCHP system offered by Wu et al. [22], and consideration
of the change of energy production ways caused by the advance-
ment of renewable energy utilization technologies, the relation-
ship among multi-generation system (including CHP and CCHP),
renewable energy system and DES is clarified (see Fig. 3). The cov-
erage of DES is various: it can be a typical residential home and the
small DES used combines rooftop solar PV cells, CHP and battery
[23]. It also can be an industrial site and the DES under construc-
tion considers the use of rooftop PV, GSHP, CHP unit, wasteheat-
based heat pump, etc [24]. In summary, DES includes the multi-
generation system and renewable energy system.
3.2. Categories
The Categories of DES are shown in Fig. 4. Due to the effects of
coverage on the design and operation of DES, DES is divided into
individual building-level DES, district-level DES and region-level
DES. Further, because of the great effects of building type, area
function and coverage, the three kinds of DESs can be subdivided.
In the individual building level, the public building involves hospi-
tals and educational buildings, etc., and the commercial building
usually involves hotels, commercial office buildings and shopping
complex, etc [25]. In district level, the neighborhood can be resi-
dential neighborhood [26] and mixed-used neighborhood [27],
while the community can be residential community [28], univer-
sity campus[29] and mixed-use community [30]. There is no clear
4 Q. Wen et al. / Energy & Buildings 225 (2020) 110314
Fig. 3. Relationships among renewable energy system, multi-generation system
and DES.
borderline between neighborhood-level DES and community-level
DES. Compared with neighborhood-level DES, community-level
DES has a larger coverage or more end-users. For example, the
neighborhood covered by the DES analyzed by Akbari et al. [26]
has 4–5 households, while the community covered by the gas
turbine- and solar PV- based DES analyzed by Arsalis et al. [28]
has 1 500 households.
Fig. 4. Categories of DES application (
means the application level is not discussed in this study).
3.2.1. Building level
The house-level and industrial building-level DES applications
are analyzed herein, and excellent reviews on the large residential
building-level DES and on public building-level and commercial
building-level DES have been dong by Li et al. [31] and Isa et al.
[25], respectively.
3.2.1.1. House level. The house-level DES based on photovoltaic
(PV) cell, fuel cell and Stirling engine is summarized in Table 1.
The house generally holds a single family (<10 kWe) or several
families (10–30 kWe). The microturbine is also used in individual
house, but it’s excluded due to the existing investigation [32].
PV cell has been one of the most popular power generator units.
For a household, the capital cost of PV cell is still high in some
countries like Thailand [33], so financial supports including low-
interest rate loan and appropriate feed-in tariff are needed for its
wider application. Fuel cell has advantages of high efficiency, scal-
ability (0.5–1 200 kW) and low emission of CO2 [34]. Fuel cell-
powered DES becomes a suitable choice for houses. Fuel Cell Today
reported in 2013 that micro CHP based on fuel cell system outsold
micro CHP system based on the conventional engine in 2012, with
64% of global sales [35]. Five types of fuel cell are mainly used in
DESs including alkaline fuel cell, phosphoric acid fuel cell, molten
carbonate fuel cell (MCFC), proton exchange membrane fuel cell
(PEMFC) and solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). Further scrutiny into
Table 1 has found that PEMFC and SOFC are the two types often
used in house level. For PEMFC, the high-temperature type uses
polybenzimidazole membrane and operates at a higher operating
temperature (160–200 °C), which reduces cooling requirement,
simplifies water management and thus lessens contamination
 Q. Wen et al. / Energy & Buildings 225 (2020) 110314 5

Table 1
Application of DES in house level.

House Generation unit Main findings Refs.

A typical detached house in US
Leaf House with six flats in Italy
A detached house in Thailand
Three detached houses in Argentina
A detached house with two floors in
Japan
A detached house with two floors
(190 m2) in UK
A detached house for single family in
US
A detached house (130 m2) for single
family in Denmark
A typical house in Japan
A typical house for single family in
Germany
A detached houses (266 m2) in Poland
A semi-detached houses (140 m2) for
single family in Northern Ireland
A detached house (190 m2) for single
family in Poland
PV cell and CHP  Sizes of battery, PV and CHP in optimized system within 1–8 kW, 5.4–8.1 Ah and being 1 [23]
kWe, respectively;
 Electricity self-sufficiency in residential scale in hot, moderate and cold zones realized by
conservatively sized PV, CHP and battery;
 Around 70%, 56% and 20% of thermal demand fulfilled by CHP unit respectively in 3 climate
zones.
Rooftop PV cell  system comprised of 5.8 kWh Li-ion battery, 6 kWp PV array and electrical and thermal [42]
storages;
 63.5% self-consumption of locally generated electricity achieved by electrical storage and
hot water met in summer;
 Higher self-sufficiency and more yearly energy saving achieved by higher integration of
electrical and thermal storages.
Rooftop PV cell  PV system simulated by RETScreen assumed to be 1 kWp; [33]
 Current feed-in tariff with net present value being 536 USD insufficient to promote rooftop
PV;
 An interest rate of 3.3–4.3% for loan term of 10–12 years proposed;
Rooftop PV cell  Financial infeasibility observed under current technology costs, national financial conditions [43]
and tariffs;
 Reduced capital cost and energy price proposed for profitability.
Rooftop PV and  PV and evacuated tube being 30 and 0 modules respectively and SOFC being 740 W with a [44]
fuel cell tank volume of 200 L after optimization;
 Conventional energy consumption reduced by 25%, 7 714 kWh electricity sold back to grid
and more conventional energy saving;
 16% of life cycle cost reduced by an integration of PV and fuel cell.
Fuel cell (PEMFE)  Optimized capacity of fuel cell within 1.9–3.6 kW and predicted CO2 emissions reduction [45]
within 27–30%;
 Most domestic heating and electricity demand satisfied in all cases.
Fuel cell  Empirical data including natural gas use, electricity use and energy audit used; [46]
 Primary energy consumption reduced by 2.2–42% and 3.6–37%, and CO2 emission by 7.5–
62.7% and 13.7–62.7% by the 0.5–30 kWe fuel cell with an efficiency of 40–60% in cooling
and heating days;
 Peak electric loads reduced by 44–60% and grid reliability achieved.
Fuel cell (high-  Off-design performance of 1 kWe high-temperature PEMFC based micro CHP system [47]
temperature analyzed;
PEMFC)  System simplicity realized by high-temperature PEMFC;
 CO content reduced from 2:71  105 to 0:21  105 kg/s;
Fuel cell (PEMFC  Demographical change of Japan, reflected by structure and size of household, and 4 types of [36]
and SOFC) fuel cell considered;
 50%, 77% and 64% of power supplied by PEMFC and SOFCs in 2 models respectively, green-
house gas emission reduced by 25–29% by SOFC base and low-output models, and cost of
two-person household greatly reduced.
Fuel cell (PEMFC  User load profiles with different temporal precision (3-s, 1- min and 15-min average) and [48]
and SOFC) three economic support schemes for micro CHP considered;
 Primary energy saving enhanced by electric and thermal storage and load following opera-
tion and more energy saved by SOFC than PEMFC;
 Electricity following operation being the best in both economic and energetic aspects.
Stirling engine  Schmidt analysis used for modeling Stirling engine and the use of Stirling engine justified by [40]
its efficiency reaching 80% the Carnot cycle;
 Generation efficiency up to 20–30%, and electricity storage needed due to great power
demand variation (0–5 kW).Building operating costs and CO2 reduced by micro CHP.
Stirling engine  Dynamic energy model of WhisperGen Stirling engine (8 kW thermal and 1 kW electrical) [41]
validated by field trial data;
 Electrical and thermal output over predicted by the model by 1.4% and 4.2% respectively;
 Mean absolute error of electric and thermal output prediction by proposed model being 7.4%
and 7.2% respectively.
Stirling engine  Free-piston Stirling engine (26 thermal power and 1 kW gross electrical power) compared [49]
with heat pump (10.2 kW thermal power) in heating season;
 Efficiency of electricity generation within 7.2–12.7% and overall efficiency within 88.-92.4%;
 Gas price increase and electricity purchase increase by 2% needed to obtain positive eco-
nomic effect compared with heat pump.

problems [36]. Nonetheless, technical efforts are needed to solve
fuel cell degradation problem and electric storage [37,36]. A good
review of the status of fuel cell-based CHP is offered in the litera-
ture [38], where thermo-economic feasibility and technical poten-
tial of PEMFC- and SOFC-CHP are analyzed. Stirling engine is
attractive in terms of total energy efficiency, simplicity and relia-
bility. It has three configurations, denoted by Greek symbols a; b
and c. Currently, Stirling engine has good acceptance in Germany
and UK [39]. The technical and economic viabilities of Stirling
engine are investigated by Skorek et al. [40] and Conroy et al.
[41]. Results of them indicate that although purchased electricity
and CO2 emission are reduced by Stirling engine-based systems,
supportive measures including lower prices of natural gas and pur-
chase electricity also should be taken to enhance it economic fea-
sibility. Table 1 shows the house-level application of DES since
2010 and verifies that the house-level DES has the advantages of
energy saving and low emission. However, Table 1 also indicates
that electric and/or thermal storage devices are needed to enhance
the performance of house-level DES and that different financial
supports are needed to promote the house-level application.
6 Q. Wen et al. / Energy & Buildings 225 (2020) 110314

3.2.1.2. Industrial building level. The industry-level DES applications
since 2010 are summarised in Table 2. Coupled with industrial pro-
duction, DES converts waste heat and residues of production into
electricity, heating and clean energy, such as H2 and CH4. This
can improve energy utilization efficiency and exergy efficiency,
contributing to high energy self-efficiency, small primary energy
consumption and low emission. Therefore, the industry-level DES
generally has positive energetic and environmental performances.
Additionally, the produced clean energy can be sold to bring prof-
itability to factories. However, the economic performance of
industry-level DES is a little complex because a disagreement
probably exists between environmental performance and eco-
nomic performance. The application of fuel cell in industrial sec-
tors has a great potential to reduce air pollutants and CO2, but its
initial investment is still relatively high and its payback period is
relatively long, which make fuel cell-based DES less attractive than
traditional technologies for industrial sectors. In order to promote
the fuel cell-based DES application in industry level, some strate-
gies can be considered, including energy prices reduction, CO2
tax development and size optimization, shown as Table 2.
3.2.2. District level
3.2.2.1. Neighborhood-level DES. The neighborhood-level DES appli-
cation is more complicated than the individual building-level
application because of the following two reasons. The first is that
the design of neighborhood-level DES involves distributed genera-
tion dispatching more often than the building-level DES. The sec-
ond is that the design of neighborhood-level DES involves energy
supply network planning, while the building-level DES does not
involves energy supply network planning. For example, the Akbari
et al. [26] optimally designed the heating pipeline network for a
small neighborhood with 4–5 houses and observed that in the

Table 2
Application of DES in industrial building level.a

Industrial building System Main findings Refs.

A copper plant in Iran CHP with recuperator  Recuperator (air preheater) modeled in detail and four cases (CHP with/without air preheater and with/ [50]
without compressor inlet air cooling system) considered;
 Total cost reduced by 36% and exergy efficiency increased by 33% when only air preheater used;
 Total cost reduced by 36% and exergy efficiency increased by 35% when air preheater and inlet cooling
system used.
A greenhouse in Iran SOFC-based CHP  LCOE lower than baseline (11.15 vs. 11.40 ¢/kWh) when world energy price and CO2 tax used, but CO2 [51]
emission lower than baseline in all cases;
 No positive economy existing while CO2 emission lower than baseline when energy cost and CO2 emis-
sion considered in optimization.
A wastewater treatment Biogas-fed SOFC-  Four SOFC based CHP system with different prime mover proposed and 3 scenarios (with regional/world [52]
plants in Italy based CHP energy price and with/without CO2 tax) and future energy price considered;
 Capital cost of SOFC higher than that of micro turbine gas and ICE;
 Thermal self-efficiency rate and electrical self-efficiency rate being 25% and 26% respectively;
 LCOE reduced by 50% in thermally-optimized systems.
A wastewater treatment Biogas-fed SOFC-/  Fuel cell (SOFC and MCFC) compared with ICE and micro turbine based on 2 WWTP sizes and 2 biogas [53]
plants in Spain MCFC-based CHP qualities;
 Normalized energy saving ratio and electric self-efficiency of small/medium plants being 30% and 60%
larger respectively than others;
 Payback period of MCFC-based system being 4 times larger than ICE-based system, and no economic
benefit in the former due to larger investments.
A tile factory in Iran Gas turbine-based  Relative annual benefit set as objective function in genetic algorithm; [54]
CCHP  Positive economy observed in three strategies, i.e. selling electricity, no-selling and selling with same
capacities of gas engine;
 Purchased electricity in selling strategy being the least;
 A better performance shown in selling strategy with gas turbine being 5000 and 700 kW.
cement plant in CCHP under Rankine/  Rankine-based CCHP compared with ORC-based CCHP and 5 organic working fluids used in ORC; [55]
Denmark ORC cycle  Exergy efficiency of Rankine- and ORC-based CCHP within 53–63%, and exergy ratio of conversion from
wasteheat to power within 40–54%;
 Energy utilization rate, exergy efficiency and sustainability index of ORC-based CCHP being 98.07%,
63.6% and 2.747%, respectively.
A cement plant in Iran Solar energy-based  Double effect absorption chiller, ejector refrigeration cycle, PEM electrolyzer, amine-based CO2 capture [56]
CCHP system, ORC and heater involved
 17.4 and 18.4 MW electricity, 5.8 and 11.3 kg/h H2 produced in summer and winter respectively,
1.2 MW cooling, and 4.1 MW heating;
 Energy and exergy efficiencies within 83.4–84.3% and 10.9–11.2% respectively, and capture of CO2 from
gases stack up to 234.1 kg/s.
A textile factory in South biogas-fired CCHP  Cascade trigeneration achieved by Brayton top power cycle and 3 bottoming sub-systems; [57]
Korea  CH4 content of biofuel increased by 28% by two-stage anaerobic process;
 Profit up to 123 467 USD/yr, electricity cost being 0.5015 USD/kWh;
 Payback period being 5 years, and system COP, thermal efficiency and total efficiency being 6, 47%, and
62%, respectively.
A wood process factory Biomass-fed SOFC-  Simulation achieved by modeling 630 kWe gasification-SOFC plant by ASPEN and CCHP system by [58]
in Italy based CCHP TRNSYS;
 Primary energy consumption reduced to 15 GWh/yr (50% less than separate generation);
 Overall efficiency larger than separate generation (38% vs. 27%) and CO2 emission reduced by 5 000 t/yr.
A manufacturing factory CCHP  Dynamic simulation achieved by TRNSYS and 3 operation strategies considered; [59]
in Italy  Optimized size lower than that of real unit selected by designers (261 MW vs. 401 MW), and energy sav-
ing being 14% under thermodynamic base and different from that based on algorithm in legislation;
 Payback period in hybrid operation smaller than that of electric-load tracking (3.8 years vs.4.1 years).
A food factory in Italy CCHP  Primary energy saving larger than 10% achieved; [60]
 Gas turbine capacity within 2.8–2.9 MW and 2.0–2.2 MW when net present value and internal rate of
return being optimized respectively;
 Choice of investment index depending on financial strategy of user (company).
a
LCOE = levelized cost of energy; ICE = internal combustion engine; ORC = Organic Cycle Rankine; WWTP = Waste Water Treatment Plant.
 Q. Wen et al. / Energy & Buildings 225 (2020) 110314
4-house scenario, the heating pipeline is tended to be imple-
mented under low and medium conservativeness of demand
uncertainty but is not tended to be implemented under a high con-
servativeness, while in the 5-house scenario the opposite occurs.
Wouters et al. [61] found that CHP units are the key component
to well integrate residential neighborhood and distributed genera-
tion dispatching is significantly influenced by the variability of
solar irradiation. There are two reasons: the first is the number
and type of involved buildings rise in the neighborhood. The sec-
ond is more on-site renewable energy alternatives can be conve-
niently exploited in the neighborhood level to satisfy its large
energy demands compared with the individual building-level
application of DES. To design a robust DES, many uncertainties
have been analyzed [62,26]. Specifically, Mavromatidis et al. [62]
analyzed five kinds of uncertainties including energy demand pat-
terns, the availability of renewable energy, energy carrier prices,
emission factors, investment costs and technical characteristics
by Monte Carlo simulation in the proposed system. The involve-
ment of multiple energy utilization technologies and the energy
supply network leads to computational complexity in the
neighborhood-level DES application. For example, the considera-
tion of the seasonal cycle of energy storage results with numerous
decision variables in the optimization. To solve this problem, Gab-
rielli et al. [63] adopted a year time horizon while with hour reso-
lution in the proposed mixed integer linear program method. To
solve the structural and operational design problem of three
neighborhood-level DESs, Haikarainen et al. [64] used a decompo-
sition procedure, which clusters network nodes into a smaller
number of sectors, and then gradually increases the detail level
of the simplified network. The application of neighborhood-level
DES in articles since 2010 is detailed in Table 3.
3.2.2.2. Community-level DES. The application of community-level
DES often emphasizes renewable energy exploitation, aiming at
achieving energy self-sufficiency and/or a positive economic effect.
The emphasis usually has been coupled with uncertainty analysis,
owing to the variability of renewable energy, energy price, energy
demand, etc. Arsalis et al. [28] analyzed the potential of the appli-
cation of small CCHP in Cyprus without any grid connection. In this
CCHP, to achieve the maximum utilization of electricity generated
by the PV subsystem, an electrolyzer unit is used to convert the
surplus electricity generated by the PV subsystem into H2, and
then the H2 is used as the fuel of gas turbine. Yu et al. [65] set
the annual investment cost, the annual cost of purchased electric-
ity and annual renewable dumped as optimization objective to
optimize the size and configuration of a small energy supply sys-
tem, and used the clustering method to obtain the demand uncer-
tainty scenario. To obtain a robust DES, Kang et al. [66] set the
minimum system annual cost as objective function and considered
the impacts of design inputs including energy demand, energy
prices and equipment degradation on the life-cycle performance
of DES by Monte Carlo simulation. To analyze the possibility of
exploiting intermittent renewable energy (solar energy and wind)
in the urban environment, Bracco et al. [67] also set the minimum
system annual total cost as the objective function, and considered
the impacts of the variability of solar irradiation and wind on the
generation prediction. The interactions between energy users and
public grid or between energy users in the community level have
been studied, due to its effects on system design and performance.
For instance, Flores et al. [68] analyzed the change of stored and
exported cooling and stored and exported electricity with CO2
emission reduction in a DES using thermal storage by two scenar-
ios, i.e. with and without electricity export, while Del Granado et al.
[69] modeled the synergy of dynamic pricing schemes, energy stor-
ages (including battery and thermal water tank) and distributed
generation units portfolio on the demand response designs for
7
end-users. In particular, Fichera et al. [70] adopted complex net-
works theory to design an energy distribution network, which
allows users to exchange their own produced solar electricity.
The user in this study refers to household, building or neighbor-
hood that consumes and produces energy. The application of
community-level DES in articles since 2010 is detailed in Table 4.
In the application of neighborhood- and community-level DES,
on-site renewable energy exploitation is attracting increasing
interest. Marique et al. [71] explored the possibility of net zero-
neighborhood and net zero-community by analyzing the effects
of urban form on energy demands and the on-site renewable
energy-based production and the effects of district location on
transportation energy consumption. To this end, the simplified
framework established by authors was applied in two sites: one
is an old compact urban neighborhood with various functions,
the other is a newer low-dense suburban neighborhood with
detached houses. The authors observed that the achievement of
neighborhood-level net zero-energy is quite difficult, and sug-
gested that PV electricity production should be helpful.
3.2.3. Region level
The application of region-level DES is not so mature as the
application of building- and district-level DESs at present. Some
researches on the planning of the region-level DES application have
been conducted. Dou et al. [73] explored the feasibility of develop-
ing a heat exchange network between incineration facilities and
industries in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area by a four-step model,
which consists of heat atlas and network analysis, hydraulic calcu-
lation of heating pipeline network, evaluation and decision mak-
ing. Jennings et al. [74] established the Residential Energy
System Concept Design Stage Optimization Model and formulated
it as a MILP for decision-making on the technologies of retrofitting
residential energy systems. Authors selected a borough of London
(including 90 000 occupied residences) to demonstrate the acces-
sibility of this model. By the model, both the optimal supply side
technologies and the optimal demand side technologies of the bor-
ough’s distributed energy supply system in three scenarios are
identified. To reduce the computational complexity of the DES
design model, Falke et al. [75] decomposed the design problem into
three sub-problems including heating network planning, genera-
tion unit design and renovation measures and operation simula-
tion. Subsequently, the authors demonstrated the potential of the
decomposed model in supporting decision-makers by a residential
district that consists of 169 buildings in a town of Hoss, Germany.
Some works in terms of software development have been con-
ducted due to the complexity of region-level DES design. For exam-
ple, Fonseca et al. [24] introduced the City Energy Analyst, a tool
for analyzing and optimizing energy systems in neighborhood
and city level, and tested its suitability by an industrial site in
the City of Zug in Switzerland. The industrial site is undergoing a
process of urban transformation. In the test case, the annual energy
demand, energy resources potential and the economic and envi-
ronmental performances of the system, etc., were analyzed in four
retrofit scenarios. The energy resources potential includes rooftop
PV, GSHP, CHP unit, wasteheat-based heat pump, etc.
4. Performance evaluation
The energetic, exergetic, environmental, economic, social and
comprehensive performances of DES are of interest to researchers.
Performance evaluations allow for a comparison with a reference
system to reflect the strengths and weaknesses of DES in different
scenarios and then obtain potential improvement strategies. In the
comprehensive performance analysis, energetic, environmental,
economic criteria, etc., are integrated into one criterion by weights.
Trade-offs between different performances can be addressed by
8 Q. Wen et al. / Energy & Buildings 225 (2020) 110314

Table 3
Application of DES in neighborhood level.a

Neighborhood System Findings Refs.

A residential neighborhood with
4–5 houses in Greece
A small residential neighborhood
with 10–20 houses in South
Australia
A residential neighborhood in
Zurich
A mixed-use neighborhood in
Shanghai
A mixed-use neighborhood in
Zurich
Mixed-use and residential
neighborhoods in Belgium
Three test neighborhoods
a
NPV = net present value; MILP = mixed-integer linear; GSHP = ground-source heat pump; UA = Uncertainty Analysis; GSA = Global Sensitivity Analysis; MC = Monte Carlo.
DESs based on PV, CHP unit (Stirling
engine or gas turbine) and solar heat
collector
DES based on PV, wind turbines, CHP
units and heating/cooling/electricity
storages
Multi-energy system based on PV, fuel
cell and gas turbine
DES based on gas engine
DES based on CHP unit, PV and GSHP
On-site renewable energy system
based on PV/thermal panels and wind
turbine
DES
 Robust optimization model created to consider effects of demanding uncer- [26]
tainty on design and pipeline network included in design;
 All demand met in the 4-house case while rises of heating (79%) and cooling
(95%) observed in the 5-house case;
 An rise in units size observed in deterministic and robust models, and units
size and heating pipeline network greatly hinging on decision-makers’ con-
servatism level about energy demand.
 Partial heating mix & micro-grid being cost-optimal, CHP being crucial to mix [61]
residential neighborhoods, extra income obtained with PV and feed-in tariff;
and self-efficiency increased by the tariff in the designed micro-grid;
 Generation dispatch greatly affected by solar radiation variability while
neighborhood energy system plan not.
 Seasonal energy storage considered and sized by MILP method; [63]
 Low computational complexity of the MILP model with a year time horizon &
hour resolution verified by a simple system, and big drops of total cost and
emission achieved by seasonal storage in the system;
 A convenient seasonal storage observed when a great decrease of emission is
required.
 Urban spatial structure considered in system planning; [27]
 Extra heat loss and electricity used by pump offset by proper spatial structure
and supply side’s cooperation.
 A small supply radius contributing to a larger energy saving for a fixed build-
ing mix, but not necessarily for a changing building mix, and a maximum
action radius existing in terms of energy saving.
The deterministic model vs. the framework combining the deterministic model, [62]
UA and GSA:
 A higher total costs, a lower emission, and that the optimal DES configuration
greatly deviates from that obtained in the former model observed in MC anal-
ysis for uncertainty;
 The optimal DES’s costs obtained in GSA greatly affected by energy demand
patterns and energy prices.
 Feasibility of zero-energy neighbourhood studied by comparing urban and [71]
suburban neighbourhood;
 An infeasibility of zero-energy neighborhoods and a big difference in energy
production and consumption observed between urban and suburban
neighborhoods;
 Energy mutualisation by PV and pooling of the built environment at neighbor-
hood scale proposed.
 Two-dimensional distributed heating network design problem involved; [64]
 The decomposition method that clusters nodes to a fewer sectors to create a
simplified network and then gradually raises the simplified network’s detail
proved time effective by tests and a comparison with the method without
decomposition, and solution time and quality being independent from cases
and network structure.

the comprehensive performance analysis. A selected cross-section
of studies for performance evaluations is shown in Table 5. Among
these evaluation performances, more attention is paid to energy,
economy and environment. Considering DES usually has a higher
initial cost than the separate system and DES is expected to save
fossil fuels and thus reduce the emission of CO2 and atmospheric
pollutants, economic feasibility, energy saving and emission reduc-
tion are fully analyzed by quantifying several criteria in each
aspect. Exergy evaluation is detailed in the cascade utilization of
energy and thus is not analyzed as often as the energetic, economic
and environmental aspects in performance evaluation. As an illus-
tration of the multicriteria DES performance evaluation, Fig. 5 pre-
sents results from Yang et al. [76] for a new distributed energy
system based on synthetic utilization of solar PV panels and solar
thermal collectors.
4.1. Evaluation methodologies
DES evaluation is often based on the comparison with a refer-
ence system, with consideration of multiple performances
(Table 5). Further, when the evaluation involves several DES
options, the evaluation becomes complex owing to the following
two reasons. The first is that the subjective evaluation based on
experts’ knowledge and experience is involved, apart from the
objective evaluation. The second is that how the subjective evalu-
ation is obtained and how the two types of evaluation are com-
bined have a significant effect on the ranking of DES alternatives.
Therefore, based on the comparison with the reference system,
researches on the performance evaluation of diverse DESs also
have been conducted to assist the decision-maker or engineer to
identify the optimal DES. Jing et al. [79] applied a multicriteria
assessment model that combines the improved gray relational
analysis approach and entropy information approach to evaluate
the performances of SOFC-CCHP used in five public buildings in
China. In the combination model, the improved gray relational
analysis approach was applied to determine the integrated gray
incidence degree, based on the criteria weights determined by
the entropy information approach. The larger gray incidence
degree is, the better the option is. Yang et al. [117] also applied a
combined approach to evaluate the DES applied in a university.
Differently, in this combined approach, both subjective and objec-
tive evaluation were considered and the weights in each evaluation
 Q. Wen et al. / Energy & Buildings 225 (2020) 110314 9

Table 4
Application of DES in community level.a

Community System Findings Refs.

A residential community in Cyprus
A residential community in North
China
Guangdong university of Technology
set in Guangzhou and Beijing
University of California in Irvine
Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Lancaster University in UK
Savona Campus of Genoa University/
a mixed-use area/Colombo-Pertini
School
An industrial park covering industrial
and residential areas in Xi’an
A mixed-use community in Catania
a
NPV = net present value; MILP = mixed-integer linear; GSHP = ground-source heat pump; UA = Uncertainty Analysis; GSA = UA; Global Sensitivity Analysis; MC = Monte
Carlo.
A small gas turbine-PV-
electrolyzer CCHP
A small DES based on gas turbine,
PV, wind turbine, energies
storages
A DES based on combustion
turbine
A DES using turbine gas, fuel cell,
PV and electricity/heating
storages
A DES based on medium-size gas
turbine
A DES based on CHP, wind
turbine and electricity/heating
storages
DESs based on PV, CHP units and
small wind turbine
A DES based on PV, CHP unit,
GSHP and heating storage
A DES
 Off-grid system comprised of 1 MWe gas turbine, 0.5 MWe PV, and H2 gener- [28]
ated by electrolyzer used as fuel of gas turbine;
 An annual primary energy ratio of 0.81 and a CO2 emission saving of 39%
obtained by the designed system;
 A life-cycle cost of $ 11.12 million, A electricity unit cost of 0.06 $/kWh, and a
62% saving of the current cost achieved by a low electricity price (0.06 $/kWh) &
a 20-year service life, and the feasibility of application proved.
 Costs of annual investment and purchased energy and renewable dumped set [65]
as optimization objective;
 The feasibility of the proposed model proved, while the infeasibility of concur-
rently achieving a minimal investment, energy dumped ratio and purchased
energy cost observed.
 In cooling-dominated zone the CCHP based on Maisotsenko combustion turbine [29]
cycle better than that based on simple gas turbine with recuperator, while the
opposite observed in the heating-dominated zone;
 A fewer CCHP’s benefit observed with electricity price decrease or gas price rise.
 The minimum cost and CO2 reduction with a specified quantity set as optimiza- [68]
tion objective and 2 scenarios with/without electrical export considered in
sizing;
 A resort to PV observed as CO2 reduction level increase in optimization;
 Both a more revenue and a more consistent operation gas turbine observed in
PV electricity export scenario.
 Life-cycle cost, and uncertain energy demands and energy price considered in [66]
design;
 The DES with the lowest life-cycle cost identified by the designed method with
life-cycle performance analysis & considering uncertainties;
 A high annual system energy efficiency (>85.1%) obtained in the best DES, yet
with a decline in the latter life.
 Impacts of real-time pricing scheme (smart grid) on DES with thermal storage [69]
and batteries considered;
 Electricity storage costs reduced by 5–10% by storage arbitrage decisions to
energy prices;
 Electricity cost reduced by 9–15% and gas cost by 15% by coupling a large CHP
with thermal storage;
 Total annual electricity cost saved by a battery response to short term operating
reserve signal.
 Variability of solar and wind energy incorporated in design and 3 sites selected [67]
for sizing;
 The importance of hourly correlation between solar radiation and wind speed
in planning wind turbine observed;
 Using wind turbine in urban environment being uneconomic, and a necessity of
optimally sizing CHP units and renewable power plants observed to maximize
self-consumption and reduce electricity export.
 A potential reduction of 57.7% and 50% in heating and CO2 emission respec- [72]
tively obtained by retrofitting building envelopes and using PV, CHP units
and GSHP in the scenario of the highest prices of gas and electricity;
 Necessities of condensing boiler, and public grid in summer observed in all sce-
narios by sensitivity analysis.
 Integration of DES for the of exchange produced energy in city modeled by com- [70]
plex networks;
 The biggest energy production (up to 80% of the network’s demands) observed
in the numerical and real cases;
 Considering the number of the exploited links of distribution network needed
to use more renewable energy.

were determined by rank correlation analysis and entropy infor-
mation method respectively. Additionally, to analyze the effect of
building type and climate conditions on CCHP performance, Wu
et al. [118] utilized the analytic hierarchy process approach to rank
4 types of commercial building in 6 major climate zones in Japan.
The authors also utilized analytic hierarchy process approach in
their previous study [119]. To compare the building-level DES per-
formances of China and Japan, Wu et al. [93] employed a synthetic
approach for the multicriteria evaluation of DES in hotels and hos-
pitals located in 6 Japanese climate zones and 5 Chinese climate
zones. The synthetic approach combines gray relational analysis
and analytic hierarchy process. Different from the studies men-
tioned above, analytic hierarchy process approach in this study
was employed to deduce the selected criteria’s weights. Other
researches using analytic hierarchy process approach for DES eval-
uation also have been done by Yousefi et al. [120] and Janjic et al.
[121]. To assess several designed distributed electrical hubs related
to a rural electrification project in Sri Lanka, Perera et al. [89] used
an integrated method that combines fuzzy Technique for Order of
Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) approach and
level diagram approach. In the study, fuzzy TOPSIS was responsible
for ranking the designed systems, while the level diagram
approach was responsible for identifying the potential directions
that could be used to improve criteria weight. In a nutshell, the
methods used in the above researches firstly focuses on the rela-
tive importance of criteria in subjective and/or objective evalua-
tions and then integrates the obtained relative values of all
criteria of a DES option into a comprehensive value, based on
10 Q. Wen et al. / Energy & Buildings 225 (2020) 110314

Table 5
DES Performance analysis.

Energy Exergy Environment Economy Society Comprehension Refs.

p p p p p
Zhang et al. [30]
p p p p
Wang et al. [77]
p p p p
Yang et al. [76], Li et al. [78], Jing et al. [79], Rong et al. [80], Zheng et al. [72]
p p p
Liu et al.[81], Li et al. [82]
p p p
Wang et al. [83]
p p p
Wang et al. [84], Su et al. [85], Colella et al. [86], Wang et al. [87], Goderbauer et al. [88],
Gonz et al. [39], Perera et al. [89]
p p p
Roshandel et al. [51]
p p
Wang et al. [90], Sui et al. [91], Bo et al. [92]
p p
Wu et al. [93], Gazda et al. [94], Huang et al. [95], Ahn et al. [96], Nagasawa et al. [46]
p p
Knizley et al. [97], Zhang et al. [98], Kang et al. [99]
p p
Yang et al. [100], Das et al. [101], Bing et al. [102], Somma et al. [103]
p p
Li et al. [104], Fazlollahi et al. [105], Li et al. [106], Dou et al. [73], Falke et al. [75]
p
Ruparathna et al. [107], Gao et al. [108]
p
Calder et al. [109]
p
Zheng et al. [110], Tantisattayaku et al. [33], Yu et al. [111], Goderbauer et al. [112], Giarola
et al. [113], Jennings et al. [74], Juroszek et al. [114]
p
Liu et al. [115], Golzar et al. [116]

Fig. 5. Primary energy saving ratio (PESR), CO2 emission reduction ratio (CO2ERR) and operation cost saving ratio (OCSR) of a hybrid CCHP system in every month under 5
operation modes [76].

which DES options are subsequently ranked to select the optimal
DES.
4.2. Evaluation criteria
Many criteria have been used to evaluate DES performance in
energetic, environmental, economic and other aspects. One or
two evaluation criteria are commonly selected to show the DES
performance in a certain aspect. Zhang et al. [30] observed the
new system based on the synthetic utilization of biomass partial
gasification and ground source heat pump had a primary energy
saving ratio (PESR) of 7.61%, annual total cost saving ratio (ATCSR)
of 23.62%, carbon dioxide emission reduction ratio (CO2EER) of
66.52% and performance indicator (PI) of 32.58%, when compared
with the separate system. Rong et al. [80] also found the CCHP-
GSHP coupling system in the case study had a primary energy sav-
ing ratio of 26.10%, carbon dioxide emission reduction ratio of
35.02%, annual total cost saving ratio of 15.13%, comprehensive
performance value of 25.42%, when compared with the separated
generation system. Wang et al. [77] used the integrated energy
efficiency, primary energy saving ratio (PESR), CO2 emission
reduction ratio (CO2ERR) plus social acceptability in the multicrite-
ria decision-making method to evaluate the energy performance of
Songshanhu high-tech industrial Park in Pearl River Delta in China,
where three types of energy sources including fossil fuel, renew-
able energy and low-grade energy are considered. In his another
 Q. Wen et al. / Energy & Buildings 225 (2020) 110314 11

study [84], to evaluate the hybrid CCHP system utilizing biomass
and solar energy, energy efficiency and exergy efficiency were
adopted for thermodynamic performance evaluation, while carbon
emission reduction ratio (CERR) was adopted for environmental
performance evaluation. Under the design condition, energy effi-
ciency, exergy efficiency and carbon emission reduction ratio were
up to 57.9%, 16.1%, and 95.7%, respectively. Other works done for
DES performance evaluation are shown in Table 5. Table 5 indi-
cates the majority of DES evaluations have considered several
performances.
The most used evaluation criteria are summarized in Table 6.
Because DES is entirely or partially fired by renewable energies
and/or wasteheat, there is a potential that primary energy is saved,
and CO2 emission and total cost are reduced by DES when com-
pared with the reference system. Therefore, the primary energy
saving ratio, CO2 emission reduction ratio and annual total cost
saving ratio are three of the most used criteria. In some hypothe-
sized cases, the exergy efficiency is adopted to optimize the pro-
posed DES. For example, Wang et al. [84] analyzed the exergy
efficiencies of the biomass-based DES and each component in each
season and identified the component that caused the largest
exergy destruction, based on which the proposed system can be
improved. There is not yet a benchmark for exergy efficiency in
legislations related to DES, different from energy efficiency. How-
ever, Somma et al. [103] considered energy costs and exergy effi-
ciency in the operation optimization of a hybrid DES. Results
proved that exergy efficiency should be included in legislation to
use energies with different grades more reasonably. For environ-
ment evaluation, CO2 emitted during operation is usually calcu-
lated. Moreover, if only CO2 is considered in greenhouse gas
calculation, the environment evaluation based on greenhouse gas
emission is similar to that based on CO2 emission. DES often has
a larger initial investment because many energy generations and
exchange devices are needed to satisfy multiple energy demands,
while it has a smaller operation cost because wasteheat and/or
renewable energy is used by these devices, when compared with
the reference system. Therefore, apart from annual total cost sav-
ing ratio, operating cost savings, net present value and payback
period are also frequently adopted to overall reflect the economic
performance of DES. Further, by assigning a weight to each of the
considered evaluation criteria, the comprehensive evaluation crite-
ria (i.e performance indicator) is created, aimed at comprehen-
sively evaluating the analyzed system by one criterion. When
calculating evaluation criteria, attention should be paid to:
 The reference system often refers to the separate system in
which electricity, heating and cooling are supplied by public
grid, boiler and electric chiller respectively, but it hinges on
research contexts. For example, in energy-saving analysis, Gao
et al. [108] compared the proposed DES with two different sys-
tems. The one consists of public grid and district cooling system,
the other consists of public grid and individual cooling system.
 Evaluation criteria can be analyzed based on different temporal
resolutions, such as an hour, a month, a season, a year, a life
cycle, etc. For instance, Su et al. [85] calculated primary energy
saving ratio, total cost saving ratio, CO2 emission reduction ratio

Table 6
A collection of the most used evaluation criteria for DES performances.

Performance Criteria Formula.a Comment Refs. Similar concept

Energy Energy gth ¼ W GT þQ heat þQ cool þW t
Q fuel þW c þQ oil
Used to analyze energy efficiency in terms of [83] –
efficiency quantity but ignoring the difference of energy
grade in heating, cooling and electricity.
Primary PESR ¼ F SP FF
SP
CHP
 100% Showing to what extent primary energy can be [30] Energy saving ratio [83], rel-
energy saved by the proposed system when compared ative primary energy savings
saving ratio with separate system. (DPES) [94], primary energy
saving (PES) [93]
Exergy gex ¼ ExF;tot ExD;tot ExL;tot
ExF;tot
To identify the types, magnitudes and locations [83] The second-law
efficiency of irreversibilities in a thermodynamic system. efficiency [122]
Environment CO2 emission CDECHP Showing to what extent CO2 emission can be [30] Carbon emissions reduction
CO2 ERR ¼ CDESPCDE SP
 100%
reduction reduced by the proposed system when (CER) [93]
ratio compared with separate system.
Total TGHGR ¼ GHGRS  GHGBCCHPþPV Showing the greenhouse gasses reduced by the [94] –
greenhouse analyzed system compared with the reference
gasses system with considering primary energy
reduction consumption and CO2 emission conversion
factors.
Relative DGHGR ¼ GHGRS GHGBCCHPþPV
GHGRS  100% Used to compare the environmental impact of [94] –
greenhouse analyzed system with that of reference system
gasses with considering primary energy consumption
reduction and CO2 emission conversion factors.
Economy Annual total ATC CHP Showing to what extent annual total cost can be [30] Annual cost saving (ACS)
ATCSR ¼ ATC SPATC SP
 100%
cost saving saved by the proposed system when compared [93]
ratio with separate system.
Operating OpCost ref OpCostDCCHP Showing to what extent operating cost can be [97] –
OpCost ¼ OpCost ref  100%
cost savings reduced by the proposed system when
compared with reference system.
Pn¼LT
Net present NPV ¼ Inv þ NS
n¼1 ð1þrÞn
Linking life-cycle revenues of the plant with [39] –
value initial investment and assuming the investment
is entirely paid in the beginning.
Payback CC DES CC CES Showing the time needed before the additional [99] –
PBP ¼ OC DES OC CES
period capital cost can be compensated by the saved
operating cost of DES.
Comprehension Performance PI ¼ x1  PESR þ x2  CO2 ERR þ x3  ATCSR Used to assess the comprehensive performance [30] Comprehensive performance
indicator of proposed system with consideration of three (CP) [80]
aspects.
a
The parameters of each formula are described in Table A.1.
12 Q. Wen et al. / Energy & Buildings 225 (2020) 110314
and comprehensive performance in each month of a year for a
CCHP system that synthetically utilizes solar energy and biogas
in Lhasa Tibet.
5. Supporting strategies
Due to its various advantages, both developed and developing
countries increase their attention to DES. Series of strategies thus
have been used by them. These strategies directly or indirectly
facilitate the further application of DES, and simultaneously evince
governmental bodies’ appreciations to distributed energy tech-
nologies. Based on the application of DES in different countries
(Tables 1 and 2), in order to specify the strategies in different
regions, America, Japan and four developed European countries
are selected for the developed country, while Iran, China and two
African countries are selected for the developing country, herein.
5.1. America
Before 2015, America took several measures to promote the
development of CHP and renewable energy utilization. Aimed at
more CHP applied to newly-built commercial buildings and exist-
ing ones, the U.S. Department of Energy proposed the ‘‘Building
Combined Heating & Power 2020 vision” early in 1999. According
to the White Paper on CHP in a Clean Energy Standard, an 11%
increase of CHP share of the U.S electric power by 2030 is expected
to be achieved [123]. Further, the Department of Energy and Envi-
ronmental Protection Agency jointly determined the strategy that
the old equipment in the industrial sector is replaced by effective
and clean distributed energy equipment [124]. To control the price
increase of natural gas, America launched the Shale Gas Revolution
in 2000, resulting in a price decrease of shale gas from $8.86 in
2008 to $4 per million Btu in 2013. It definitely improves the eco-
nomic competitiveness of natural gas-fired DES. Clean energy is
emphasized for sustainable development during 2008–2015. Sev-
eral related policies thus have been issued. For example, the Blue-
print for a Secure Energy Future has been issued in 2011 [125]. It
stipulates that the dependence on oil will be reduced by exploiting
cleaner alternative energy. Subsequently, the Clean Power Plan has
been published in 2015 to promote renewable energy power [126].
5.2. Japan
Because of the scarcity of energy resources, the Japanese gov-
ernment not only encourages the relevant enterprises, like Yanmar
Diesel, MHI and Fiji Electric, to devote to Research & Development
of the key equipment of distributed energy, but also stipulates that
the distributed energy application must be market-oriented. Fol-
lowing the adjustment in 2007, 2010 and 2014, the fourth adjust-
ment of the Basic Energy Plan has been finished in 2018. In the
latest version, the medium-term plan (by 2030) and long-term
plan (by 2050) is proposed, based on scientific evaluations of
CHP potential in both domestic and industrial sectors. And it is pro-
jected that the ratio of renewable energy resource power to total
power will be up to 22–24%, while that of nuclear power and fossil
fuel power will be reduced to 20–22% and 56% respectively. Aimed
at breaking up the power monopoly to give consumers freedom of
choice of power supplier, Electrical Business Law was passed and
put into effect quickly in 2015. As a result, Japanese energy enter-
prises have successfully developed several DESs, including Tokyo
Gas Kumagaya Branches Heat Interchange Network, Iwasaki Smart
Energy Internet in Osaka [127] and Senju Mixing-function District
Energy Internet. By taking the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics as an
opportunity, now Tokyo Metropolitan Government proposed its
development vision, of which one target is to construct smart
energy for cities. To realize the periodical target, Tokyo Metropoli-
tan Government launched a subsidy program named as Promotion
of Smart Energy District Establishment, through which 5.5 billion
JPY is projected to be used as a subsidy for the investment in
DES based on electricity and heat interchanges. In addition, rele-
vant economic development plans were adjusted and technologi-
cal measures, like net metering, were taken by the Japanese
government to facilitate the DES application.
5.3. European countries
5.3.1. Germany
Germany has been fulfilling its obligation to reduce greenhouse
emission and has taken a series of actions, in which specific targets
have been determined. In 2012, Germany revised the law named
Combined Heat and Power, through which the government set a
legally binding development target that the electricity generated
by CHP is expected to account for 25% of the total generation by
2025 [128]. According to this law, the electricity from CHP would
receive a higher subsidy and have a priority to connect to public
grid, the term of validity of incentive scheme for CHP would be
extended to 2016, and the limit on CHP capacity would be elimi-
nated. Further, a range of policies including Law on Renewable
Energies (2012), Renewable energy heat Act and Micro CHP Incen-
tive Plan have been released. Specifically, the Law on Renewable
Energies (2012) stipulates that the biomass-based power plant is
obligated to facilitate the development of the CHP project and its
preferential policies for renewable energy are also applicable to
CHP. Further, Germany in 2015 declared the nuclear power
phase-out by 2022, which offers a favorable opportunity for the
development of CHP. Now Germany shares the largest part of
CHP market among EU members. In 2016, the government modi-
fied the Law on Renewable Energies again and proposed energy
transition scheme, which is that by 2020 the electricity generated
by renewable energy accounts for 35% of the total generation, and
this proportion is expected to be 50% by 2030 and over 80% by
2050. Based on these strategies, 75% of capital in the renewable
energy sector has been invested in small-scale renewable energy-
based projects, such as rooftop solar PV systems. Lately, German
Climate Law Draft calls for a net-zero emission by 2050 and sub-
tasks will be assigned to energy, environment and industry sectors.
5.3.2. Italy
According to European Regulation 2009/28/EC, the proportion
of renewable energy in the total primary energy consumption of
Italy should account for 17% by 2020 [129]. Therefore, many sup-
porting strategies have been carried out to realize the target. By
2011, the net metering policy had been adopted in Italy, which
allowed the deduction of purchased grid electricity by on-grid
electricity generated by solar PV systems. This policy also had been
adopted by other countries, like Japan and Denmark. In 2013, Italy
issued the National Energy Strategy, which determined the main
target of the energy sector in the future is to improve the efficiency
of energy utilization and renewable energy should play a signifi-
cant role in it [130]. In National Energy Strategy, the proportion
of renewable energy in the total primary energy consumption in
2020 should be increased to 19–20% from the target proposed by
EU (i.e. 17%) and the proportion of fossil fuel should be decreased
to 76% from 86%. These targets yielded a widespread renewable
energy-based distributed generation. To facilitate the grid connec-
tion of distributed renewable electricity, Italy not only upgraded its
traditional medium-voltage public grid but also emphasized more
the research of terminal equipment of the smart grid. Enel, the lar-
gest producer and supplier of electricity in Italy, attaches great
importance to the distributed PV system and the new energy stor-
age technology. It has applied the new energy storage technology
and distributed PV system to areas with high commercial potential
 Q. Wen et al. / Energy & Buildings 225 (2020) 110314
by cooperation with advanced enterprises in the two fields. Then,
in 2015 Enel highlighted the application of energy storage tech-
nologies in residential buildings in its sustainability report [131].
Furthermore, in 2017 the National Energy Strategy was amended
[132]. In the new National Energy Strategy, the proportion of
renewable energy in the total primary energy should reach 28%
by 2030 and the thermal power plant is planned to be phased
out by 2025. The National Integrated Plan for Climate and Energy
was published in 2019, where the proportion of renewable energy
should be increased to 30%. In addition, Italy has implemented
other measures for renewable energy electricity including feed-in
tariffs, tax breaks and fiscal stimulus in the construction industry.
The fiscal stimulus in the construction industry aims to supply
financial support for distributed energy technologies, including
solar power, high-efficiency heat pumps, low-enthalpy geothermal
application and biomass-based electricity generation, etc. Through
these supportive strategies, renewable energy-based distributed
generation is predicted to be widely deployed, especially solar
power. In the first half of 2020, Italy published the Ecobonus, based
on which the tax break of distributed PV project and the energy
storage system related to building retrofitting projects is increased
to 110% [133]. The new fiscal measure is expected to greatly
improve the efficiency of energy utilization.
5.3.3. Britain
To support PV generation, the British government adopted the
cost-sharing strategy, that is, the cost of PV generation was allo-
cated to fossil fuel-based energy producers through tax. Other
cost-sharing strategies, like financial subsidies, also have been
adopted by the government. These strategies weakened the barrier
of the high initial cost to PV projects. To realize the low-carbon
economy, the British government has encouraged all energy enter-
prises to reduce carbon emission and save energy. For example, the
enterprise would be eligible for government credit and the value-
added tax of the installation cost of equipment would be reduced
by 5% if the enterprise improved its primary energy saving ratio
to a specific value given by the government through distributed
energy technologies Through Climate Change Levy, the British gov-
ernment increased the tariff of grid electricity and coal. However,
the DES project was exempted from Climate Change Levy [134].
The national energy consumption was predicted to be saved by
20% by these policies. By 2013, the installed capacity of CHP in Bri-
tain was about 420  104 kW, accounting for 10% of the total elec-
trical output. Furthermore, in 2014 the British government
modified its Feed-in Tariffs (FIT) scheme, firstly issued in April
2010, to promote the development of small-scale distributed
energy systems (65 MW) [135]. In 2016 Department for Business,
Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) of Britain reported that the
electrical output of natural gas power plants accounted for 45%
of the total electrical output and the thermal power plant was
planned to be phased out by 2025 [136]. By 2018, more than 1
000 DESs had been applied in public buildings including shopping
malls, hospitals, schools and offices, etc.
5.3.4. Poland
In 2014 the Polish government has launched the ‘‘Bocian” pro-
gram (2014–2022) for distributed renewable energy [137]. The
program aims to provide distributed renewable energy projects
with financing that is up to 50% of the initial cost of projects. This
program is also applicable to small-scale hydropower projects with
the installed capacity less than 5 MW. However, since 2012, the
Polish government stopped financing renewable energy projects
because of the excessive supply of electricity subsidy in the Polish
renewable energy market. In 2015, Poland amended its Renewable
Energy Act [138]. Through the new Renewable Energy Act, the Pol-
ish government formulated two new strategies to incentivize
13
renewable energy investment in the power generation sector.
The first strategy is adopting auction systems to replace green cer-
tificates. The second is Feed-in Tariff (FIT) that is applicable to
microgeneration up to 10 kW. These economic incentives allow
the development of small private renewable energy power gener-
ation, contributing to the propagation of distributed renewable
energy systems. However, restrictions are imposed on the Renew-
able Energy Act. For example, the capacity of the renewable
energy-based unit should be no more than 10 kW, the eligible time
span of Feed-in Tariff is 2016–2020, and the total capacity of the
project is no more than 80 MW. In 2019, Poland has nearly quadru-
pled its installed capacity of solar power to 784 MW and has
become the fifth-largest producer of solar power in Europe [139].
According to the draft of Energy Policy issued in 2018, renewable
energy power and nuclear power in Poland is emphasized to real-
ize the emission reduction target, that is, in 2030 CO2 emission
should be reduced by 30% compared with that of 1990, the share
of coal in total energy consumption should be reduced to 60%
and further to less than 30% in 2040. Correspondingly, the share
of renewable energy should be increased to 21% by 2030 and both
solar power projects and offshore wind power projects that will
start in 2026 should be emphasized in the Polish energy planning
[140].
5.4. Iran
To mitigate atmospheric pollution, Iran has taken some mea-
sures to develop its renewable energy, especially solar energy. In
2016, the Iranian government carried out the feed-in tariff for
the PV project [141]. According to the feed-in tariff strategy, the
PV project with a capacity no more than 2 kW is eligible for a sub-
sidy of $0.24 per kWh and the PV project with a capacity of 20–
200 kW is eligible for a subsidy of $0.21 per kWh. More, the addi-
tional subsidy can be obtained if the PV equipment used in projects
is produced in Iran. Additionally, The Iran government promoted
energetically rooftop PV project for residential, industrial and com-
mercial buildings and the subsidy scheme for both rooftop PV pro-
ject and large-scale PV project were also released in 2016 [142].
However, people’s lack of awareness of the PV project had become
a major obstacle to the implementation of the scheme, especially
for the rooftop PV project. Thus, more information about the roof-
top PV project should be supplied for Iranian people to raise their
awareness about the rooftop PV project. Like Italy, the Iranian gov-
ernment also carried out the net metering scheme in 2017 to pro-
mote the development of distributed PV, though the installed
capacity of distributed PV in Iran had been only 2 MW by 2017
[143]. Although the distributed energy technology in Iran started
later than the above countries, many DESs have been successfully
applied in industrial buildings, shown as subSection 3.2. These
years also see an upward trend in the distributed PV project in Iran.
5.5. China
The Chinese government has taken plentiful measures to realize
national energy transmission and environmental pollution control
these years. The promotion of DES application is an important one
among these measures because of its advantage of energy saving
and emission reduction. Table 7 lists partial strategies imple-
mented by China.
To reduce the consumption of fossil fuels, CHP was set as one of
10 key national energy conservation programs in the Chinese
Medium- and Long-term Energy Development Plan (2004–2020)
[144]. In 2004, the National Development and Reform Commission
emphasized the DES application in the Report on Related Issues of
Distributed Energy, after which energy strategies that favor the
DES development have been planned and implemented gradually.
14 Q. Wen et al. / Energy & Buildings 225 (2020) 110314

Table 7 implementation of DES. Correspondingly, some local governments

Main strategies for DES in China since 2010.a also have enacted favorable policies, like Beijing [146].
No. Organization Time Strategies
1 State Council June 2014 Action Plan for Energy Development 5.6. African countries
Strategy (2014–2020)
2 State Council March Suggestion on Further Reforming Power African countries are expected to have a rapid economic devel-
2015 System opment in this century, which undoubtedly requires enormous
3 NEA June 2015 Suggestion on Products Application and
Industry upgrading of Advanced PV
energy. However, the energy supply in some African countries is
Technology insufficient for their economic development at present, like Egypt.
4 State Council February Guidance on Promoting Internet plus With the consideration of local resource endowments and the cur-
2016 Smart Energy Development rent electricity supply level of these countries, DES projects have
5 NDRC March Administrative Measure for Full
been encouraged to bridge the gap between energy demand and
2016 Guaranteed Purchase of Renewable
Energy Generation supply. Two economically active countries, Egypt and Nigeria, are
6 NDRC December The 13th Plan for Renewable Energy set as examples to illustrate the supportive strategies for DES
2016 Development (2016–2020) development.
7 NDRC & NEA March Notice about Opening Power Generation
2017 and Consumption Scheme in Order
5.6.1. Egypt
8 NEA May 2017 Notice on accelerating grid-tied
distributed wind power projects Egypt enjoys favorable wind and solar radiation intensity. Since
construction 2013, the government has issued a series of measures to construct
9 NEA June 2017 Suggestion on accelerating natural gas centralized solar PV plants and develop distributed solar PV tech-
utilization
nologies. Several polices related to distributed solar PV projects
10 Beijing July 2017 The 13th Five-year Plan of Energy
Development are listed in Table 8 [21], which indicates that the strategies in
11 Shanghai July 2017 Special support measures for progression political, economical and technical aspects have been made by
of natural gas DES and natural gas-fired Egypt to support the application of distributed solar PV systems
air-conditioning and that these strategies have promoted the development of DES.
12 NDRC May 2018 Notice on PV power related matters in
Followed Cabinet of Ministers Initiative, in mid-2014 the govern-
2018
13 NDRC & NEA October Action Plan for Clean Energy Absorptive ment issued two initiatives to promote rooftop PV systems on pub-
2018 Capacity (2018–2020) lic buildings, under which about 3 MW of PV systems have been
14 Standing October Law of China on the Prevention and installed and operated in on-grid mode. Totally, this contributed
Committee of 2018 Control of Atmospheric Pollution (4th
to a growth of approximately 10 MW after the feed-in tariff
NPC edition)
15 Standing December The Environmental Impact Assessment
scheme was adopted. The feed-in tariff scheme of Egypt aims at
Committee of 2018 Law of China (2nd edition) mobilizing investment to electricity generation from renewable
NPC energy resources, particularly wind and solar, and has been imple-
16 NDRC January Notice on actively promoting no- mented into 2 phases. The first phase is over 2014–2016 and the
2019 subsidized feed-in of wind power and PV
second is over 2016–2018 with tariffs revised. Egypt plans to elim-
power
17 State Grid February Action Plan for Promotion of the inate its energy subsidies by 2022, which will make more indus-
Corporation 2019 Development of Integrated Energy trial and commercial sectors integrate distributed solar PV
Services Business (2018–2020) systems into their energy supply schemes to satisfy their energy
a
NDRC = National Development and Reform Commission of China; NEA = Na- demands and reduce utility bills. Nowadays, many distributed
tional Energy Administration of China; NPC = National People’s Congress of China. solar PV projects are in preparation in Egypt. In January 2020,
Egypt has signed an agreement with a company of China to con-
struct a distributed solar PV project with a capacity of 500 MW.
To optimize energy structure for coal consumption reduction, the
General Office of State Council issued ‘‘Action Plan for Energy 5.6.2. Nigeria
Development Strategy (2014–2020)” [145]. In 2016, the National The government of Nigeria has issued a range of policies and
Development and Reform Commission published the Administra- regulations for renewable energy-based small-scale electricity
tive Measure for Full Guaranteed Purchase of Renewable Energy generation projects since 2010 [147]. Based on the liberalization
Generation to solve dumping renewable energy generation prob- of the power sector, the government issued the Renewable Energy
lems, e.g. wind/water/solar energy power curtailments, and the Master Plan in 2016, aimed at increasing electricity generated by
13th Five-year Plan for Renewable Energy Development (2016– renewable resources to 10% of the total consumption by 2025. In
2020) is followed, in which small- and medium-scale distributed 2013, the government started to implement its Nigerian Energy
low-temperature and high-temperature geothermal power pro- Support Programme (2013–2017), with support from some inter-
jects are encouraged in light of local conditions. Following its three national organizations. This program includes feasibility studies
revisions in 1995, 2000 and 2015, the Law of China on the Preven- for small-scale electricity generation sites, the development of
tion and Control of Atmospheric Pollution was amended in 2018. the pilot management model, etc. When this program was finished,
Meantime, the Action Plan for Clean Energy Absorptive Capacity 6 small-scale electricity supply grid in five partner states were con-
(2018–2020) was carried out to reinforce the acceptance ability structed. Then, the Rural Electrification Strategy and Implementa-
of the grid to distributed clean energy generation and improve tion Plan was released by the Renewable Energy Agency in 2016 to
the technical standards of integrating public grid with distributed realize the rural electrification. The plan highlights the ownerships
renewable energy resource generation. In the latest Environmental of the small-scale electricity grid of the community and individual.
Impact Assessment Law of China (2018), it’s stipulated that the The Regulation for Mini-Grids was released to create an integrated
evaluation of environmental impacts must be performed before and safe regulatory environment for small-scale projects. Subse-
the approval of special plans for energy and natural resource quently, the new Rural Electrification Fund Operational Guideline
exploitation. Of late, Action Plan for Promotion of the Development was issued in 2017 to facilitate rural electrification. Further, in
of Integrated Energy Services Business (2018–2020) was published 2018 the government initiated the Nigerian Electrification Project,
by State Grid Corporation, which gives a solid guarantee to the which focuses on technical assistance and the improvement of
 Q. Wen et al. / Energy & Buildings 225 (2020) 110314 15

Table 8
Main strategies related to distributed solar PV projects in Egypt since 2010.a

Strategies Time Description Achievements

Cabinet of Ministers Since  1 000 government buildings are mandated to install rooftop PV  EEHC implemented 30 solar PV systems with the
Initiative December system with capacity totalling 20–30 MW; capacity totalling 840 kW at a cost of EGP 8.2
2013 million.
FIT Initiative 2014–2018  300 MW of small-scale rooftop PV systems installed with 2014– –
2016;
 FIT extended in 2016 with revised tariffs.
Egypt-Sun Initiative 2014–2015  Designed and implemented by Central Energy Efficiency Unit at  52 projects in 14 governorates completed during
Cabinet of Ministers Initiative. March 2014 to June 2015;
 Promotion of application of combined lighting and PV systems  PV capacity occupying 1/3 of the replaced capacity
in commercial buildings; more than 2 MW.
 Technical assistance to staff provided by governorates;
UAE Rural 2015–2016  Small-scale PV projects supported for electrification of remote  6 942 stand-alone systems installed totalling 2 MW,
Electrification areas with a capacity of 32 MW; 8 centralised systems totalling 30 MW, and street
Initiative lighting and some hybrid PV-diesel systems.
a
FIT = Feed-in tariff; EEHC = Egyptian Electricity Holding Company.

institution implementation capacity for small-scale electrification
projects.
Besides Egypt and Nigeria, there are other African countries,
such as Kenya, that strive to exploit local renewable resources to
electrify their rural villages and power their economy. Solar energy
is expected to be exploited more among various renewable ener-
gies. The application of distributed energy systems based on
renewable energy resources will ensure stable development in
society and economy in African countries.
the development of new renewable energy technologies. As the
market of renewable energy-based DES becomes mature, these
countries tend to reduce preferential subsidies. It perhaps
decreases the economic feasibility and investment attraction of
renewable energy-based DES. Therefore, incentive policies should
be made and revised carefully. Next, feed-in tariff affects the eco-
nomic performance of DES greatly. Though the connection to pub-
lic grid for DES is permitted, a very low feed-in tariff will
deteriorate the profitability, resulting in a negative evaluation of
the DES.

6. Challenges
Based on the aforementioned analysis, the DES development
may face some challenges, which are listed below.
The first is from the socio-political environment. One the one
hand, now in some countries the majority of the electricity supply
system is governed by the government. For example, in Egypt the
electricity generation, transmission and distribution are controlled
by a state-owned enterprise. Although in recent years the mono-
poly has made some changes and started to make way for the com-
petition from private investors, the changes are limited and not
enough to create a fair competition environment. An open electric-
ity market is significant to develop DES, especially for the invest-
ments in the district- and region-level DES. Therefore, the
government perhaps needs to make some adjustments in the reg-
ulation of the energy sector to give the development of DES more
space. On the other hand, the continuity of policies is also impor-
tant for the success of distributed energy projects. However, the
reversal or suspension of policies that support the construction
of renewable energy-based DES occasionally occurs because of
some political factors.
The second originates from the technological aspect. For one
thing, based on the analysis of house-level DES, it’s observed that
in many cases the economic feasibility depends on the usage of
electric and/or thermal storage. Nonetheless, at present the electric
storage technology is not fully mature, ending with a high capital
of using electric storage devices. For another, the connection to
public grid of electricity produced by DES is likely to have an
adverse effect on the reliability of public grid. So, quality standards
and corresponding certification schemes for equipment and ser-
vices in DES projects are necessary to settle this question.
The third is about the economy of DES. Firstly, in the initial
stage, some countries offer high subsidies to renewable energy-
based projects to attract investment. For example, in Germany,
the subsidies had ever been so high that it became a barrier for
7. Conclusions
DES is defined as a kind of energy system located at or near its
end-users, fired by wasteheat of renewable energy and character-
ized by multi-generation, and thus DES generally has higher total
energy efficiency, lower emission and a positive economic effect
compared with the traditional separate system. This study reviews
the DES progression over the past decade in three aspects, i.e.
applications in different levels, performance evaluations and sup-
portive strategies in different regions. The main conclusions of this
study are drawn:
(1) DES has been applied in multiple levels, including individual
building level, district level and region level. The house level
and industrial building level are detailed in the individual
building level. The application of house-level DES is based on
several prime movers, which are rooftop solar PV cell, fuel cell
(mainly including PEMFC and SOFC) and Stirling engine. The
application of industrial building-level DES is characterized by
wasteheat recovery and clean energy technologies, with the
aim of fossil fuel consumption reduction and CO2 emission
reduction. The application of district-level DES is divided into
neighborhood-level application and community-level applica-
tion. The neighborhood level involves the DESs applied in resi-
dential neighborhoods and mixed-used neighborhoods, while
the community level involves the DESs applied in the residen-
tial community, the university community and the mixed-use
community. The application of district- and region-level DESs
have paid more attention to the pipeline network and the bal-
ance between supply and demand;
(2) The methods and criteria used for DES performance evalua-
tion are summarised. In evaluation, DES is compared with the
reference system with consideration of various performances.
Based on the comparison, the weight approach and the ranking
16 Q. Wen et al. / Energy & Buildings 225 (2020) 110314

Table A.1
Parameters description of formulas in Table 6.

Criteria Formula Parameters description

Energy efficiency gth ¼ W GT þQ heat þQ cool þW t
Q fuel þW c þQ oil
W GT and W t are the electric power supplied to demand side by gas turbine and by air turbine
respectively, kW; Q heat and Q cool are the heating power and cooling power supplied to demand side
respectively, kW; Q fuel is the gas turbine input fuel, kW; W c is the consumed electric power of air
compressor, kW; Q oil is the consumed solar energy, kW.
Primary energy PESR ¼ F SP FF
SP
CHP
 100% F SP and F CHP are the primary energy consumption of the proposed CHP system and separate system
saving ratio respectively.
Exergy efficiency gex ¼ ExF;tot ExD;tot ExL;tot
ExF;tot
ExF;tot and ExD;tot are the total exergy fuel and the total exergy destruction respectively; ExL;tot is the
total exergy loss to the environment.
CO2 emission CDECHP CDECHP and CDESP are the CO2 emission reduction of the proposed CHP system and separate system
CO2 ERR ¼ CDESPCDE SP
 100%
reduction ratio respectively.
Total greenhouse TGHGR ¼ GHGRS  GHGBCCHPþPV GHGRS and GHGBCCHPþPV are the annual greenhouse gasses emission from reference system and the
gasses reduction PV-based trigeneration system respectively.
Relative greenhouse DGHGR ¼ GHGRS GHGBCCHPþPV
GHGRS  100% the same as total greenhouse gasses reduction.
gasses reduction
Annual total cost ATC CHP ATC CHP and ATC SP are the annual total cost of the proposed CHP system and separate system
ATCSR ¼ ATC SPATC SP
 100%
saving ratio respectively.
Operating cost OpCostref OpCostDCCHP OpCost ref and OpCostDCCHP are the operating cost of reference system and the dual-power
OpCost ¼ OpCost ref  100%
savings generation unit CCHP system respectively.
Pn¼LT
Net present value NPV ¼ Inv þ NS
n¼1 ð1þrÞn
Inv is the initial investment of the proposed Stirling engine-based micro CHP system; LT is the
lifetime of the micro CHP system, NS is the annual cash flows, and r is the ratio of discount.
Payback period CC DES CC CES CC DES and CC CES are the capital cost of DES and centralized energy system respectively; OC DES and
PBP ¼ OC DES OC CES
OC CES are the operating cost of DES and centralized energy system respectively.
Performance PI ¼ x1  PESR þ x2  CO2 ERR þ x3  ATCSR PESR, CO2ERR and ATCSR are the primary energy saving ratio, CO2 emission reduction ratio and
indicator annual total cost saving ratio of the proposed CHP system respectively; x1 ; x2 and x3 are the
weight of PESR, CO2ERR and ATCSR respectively.

approach are often combined to sort out the DES options to
identify the optimal DES. The considered performances mainly
include energy, environment and economy. For each of them,
a range of evaluation criteria have been used and the most used
criteria have been detailed in this study. For energetic evalua-
tion, the most used criteria include primary energy saving ratio
(PESR) and exergy efficiency, whilst for environmental evalua-
tion, the most used criteria include CO2 emission reduction
ratio (CDER), CO2-equivalent emission and CO2 emission associ-
ated costs. The annual total cost saving ratio (ATCR) and net
present value are the most utilized evaluation criteria for eco-
nomic performance. Also, the comprehensive performance, an
integrated criterion, is adopted for the overall system
evaluation;
(3) The supportive strategies in both developed countries (rep-
resented by America, Japan and four developed European coun-
tries) and developing countries (represented by Iran, China,
Egypt and Nigeria) have been discussed. In these countries, a
series of strategies have been taken to promote the application
of renewable energy-based DES and medium-/long-term devel-
opment targets also have been defined, particularly in Ger-
many. The strategies of China have focused on energy
transmission and environment pollution control through dis-
tributed renewable energy exploitation, while supportive
strategies of Egypt and Nigeria have focused on energy self-
efficiency, rural electrification as well as emission reduction.
(4) Several potential challenges are presented based on the
analysis of applications, evaluations and supportive strategies.
The future development of DES requires not only a more open
socio-political environment, more reasonable economic mea-
sures, but also the technological advancement in energy storage
shown by the application analysis in multiple levels.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foun-
dation of China [51606225]; Hunan Provincial Natural Science
Foundation of China [2018JJ2518]; and the Fundamental Research
Funds for the Central Universities of Central South University
[2019zzts866].
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
Appendix A
See Table A.1.
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