Ten questions concerning smart districts

Abstract

As an extension of the ‘energy trilemma’ of affordability/sustainability/security to also include social acceptance, the ‘energy quadrilemma’, is driving multiple and complex developments in energy systems, particularly at the level of distributed energy resources. These, and in particular demand side resources, may have an important role in providing the flexibility required for electricity systems to integrate low carbon technologies, while also increasing the efficiency of the energy system as a whole. This is particularly relevant to resources that are aggregated in districts, for instance through community energy systems, that also adopt various enabling ‘smart’ technologies, thus becom..