An improved two-step floating catchment area method for supporting district building energy planning: A case study of Yongding County city, China

Traditional energy planning methods emphasize the total energy supply equaling to the total demand and neglect details of the distribution in energy demand and supply within a region or city. An improved two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) method is developed to reflect internal heterogeneity in energy demand and/or supply and address interactions between them based on respective catchment sizes of different categories of energy sources in a GIS digital environment. The first part of the method delineates how to allocate a variety of energy sources within their service boundaries. The second part evaluates how much to be obtained by a consumer from the available energy sources. Subsequently, it is applied to a case study of Yongding County city, China for supporting district building energy planning. The results show that the improved 2SFCA method can address interactions between energy demand and supply across tax lots and can help planners make precise decisions on selecting what energy sources to meet specific categories of spatial energy demand.