BEIRUT AS A SMART CITY: REDEFINING URBAN ENERGY

Abstract

Global efforts are exerted to improve energy supply-demand balance in urban environments which are characterized byhigher population density and levels of energy consumption. Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, is no exception in facing suchurban challenges, which are compounded by the regular power outages. As such, developing an urban scale energymodel for energy management is essential to achieve this goal. This policy brief presents a model developed for theBachoura area to determine its buildings energy performance. The results are integrated to report the hourly energyuse profile spatially distributed over the city, which leads to identifying hotspots and peak hours of energy demands.The model can be used to estimate the potential savings from rooftop solar energy production and recommendtargeted energy-use policies to alleviate peaks and ensure an optimal and efficient distribution of resources