The concept of Positive Energy Districts (PEDs), introduced in the Strategic Energy Technology Plan, is one of the fundamental approaches for a successful, clean and sustainable urbanization by 2025. According to the European Commission, a PED is a set of buildings where the community controls the energy flows and aims at a net positive energy balance over a year by utilizing renewable energy sources. There are a plethora of concepts similar to PEDs, such as Positive Energy Community, Net Zero Energy Neighborhood, Plus Energy Districts, that create a need to establish a structure that can facilitate the definition, development, and precise identification of PEDs. Thus, this paper aims to fill this research gap by comparing these and other related concepts through a critical literature review based on three pillars composing the triangle of sustainability: economic, social and environmental. By doing this, the paper aims to determine the connections between these similar concepts, homogenize the use of terms and avoid the issue of repetitions, which can help draw lessons learnt from other energy‐savings concepts. This study shows how PEDs and Nearly Zero Energy Communities have similar bases, aims and omissions. They diverge in a few key concepts, which can become learning points for PEDs.This article is categorized under: Climate and Environment > Net Zero Planning and Decarbonization Policy and Economics > Energy Transitions Human and Social Dimensions > Energy and Climate Justice

Urban areas have been responsible for the majority of the European Union (EU)-wide primary energy demand and $C{O}_2$ emissions. To address this issue, the European Union introduced the concept of Positive Energy Districts (PEDs). PEDs are required to have an annual positive primary energy balance. However, if directly addressed in the literature, this energy balance only includes annually fixed primary energy factors and often neglects grid impacts. To bridge this gap, this work proposes a mathematical optimisation approach for PEDs, working towards an open-source model. The model’s main novelty is an hourly primary energy balance constraint. The performed case study on the island La Palma for both an urban and a rural neighbourhood show that the PED concept has a higher net present value (NPV) than solely buying electricity from the grid in all feasible cases. Depending on the space available for PV installations, the NPV increases between 29 and 31% and 25–27% for the rural and urban PED scenarios, respectively. However, in the scenarios with reduced grid impact, the NPV decreases due to the expensive battery installations. Comparing the significantly fossil-based electricity grid mix of La Palma with the renewable-based one of El Hierro shows that the primary energy-based optimisation has more room for flexibility in the high renewable mix. While the dynamic primary energy balance constraint appears promising for operational optimisation, the allocation of correct primary energy factors is crucial.

Planning the required energy infrastructure for the energy transition is a crucial task for various neighbourhood concepts, such as positive energy districts. However, energy planning often comes with the challenges of data shortages and a lack of comparability among solutions for different districts. This work aims to enable this comparability by introducing an approach for categorising districts according to parameters that are relevant for the planning of neighbourhood energy infrastructures. Four parameters (climate, floor space index, heating demand and share of residential buildings) and their respective ranges (bands) were derived from the literature. Additionally, this work visualised the combination of all parameter bands across Europe to conveniently showcase districts that are comparable according to the selected parameters. This approach and its visualisation could be used in urban planning to share knowledge from existing energy district projects with those planned in comparable districts.