Applied Energy 119 (2014) 99–117

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Applied Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy

A proposal for a site location planning model of environmentally friendly

urban energy supply plants using an environment and energy
geographical information system (E-GIS) database (DB) and an artificial
neural network (ANN)
In-Ae Yeo, Jurng-Jae Yee ⇑
Department of Architectural Engineering, Dong-A University, 840 Hadan 2-dong, Saha-gu, Busan 604 714, Republic of Korea

h i g h l i g h t s

 A site location potential model for urban energy supply planning is proposed.
 The model deduces urban energy plants’ suitability and renewable energy availability.
 The model was constructed as an ANN with an input–output dataset from the E-GIS DB.
 The model produces planning supportive materials, such as energy potential maps.
 This model addresses the technical methodology for urban energy supply planning.

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

Article history: This study proposes a site location potential model for urban energy supply plants and renewable energy
Received 28 May 2013 availability using an environment and energy geographical information system (E-GIS) database (DB) and
Received in revised form 23 December 2013 an artificial neural network (ANN). This model addresses the technical methodology of examining the
Accepted 29 December 2013
potential for the suitability of urban energy supply plants and renewable energy latency in a region for
Available online 25 January 2014
support material for urban energy supply planning in the draft plan development stage. The applicability
of this model is examined by applying it for a planned city in the Republic of Korea, where urban planning
Keywords:
is in process. The results from this study are as follows:
Low carbon green city
Urban planning support system (PSS) (1) The E-GIS DB was integrated with geography, climate, and energy-related information to construct
Energy supply planning an ANN model that can manage, in an integrated manner, the factors that affect the site location of
Environment and energy geographic
the energy supply plants.
information system (E-GIS)
(2) The input dataset included the topography, land cover classification, accessibility, water usability,
Artificial neural network (ANN)
Energy potential map
and energy demand, and the target dataset included the system capacity of domestically installed
energy supply plants.
(3) The site location potential model of the ANN for the urban energy supply plants and renewable
energy availability was deduced, and the Levenberg–Marquardt (trainlm) and scaled conjugate
gradient (trainscg) algorithms were used. The potentiality class map was constructed for 10 types
of energy supply systems and renewable energy resources.
(4) The applicability of this energy model was tested in the Gwang-myung/Si-heung public housing
district area, a domestic ‘planned city’ of the Republic of Korea. The most appropriate urban energy
supply systems for the research area were considered to be the general hydraulic power and solar
power based on the topographic conditions and profitable locations for solar resources in Korea.
Wind power generation was found to be the least suitable.
(5) In terms of the wind energy potential, the technical wind power generation by horizontal – axis
wind turbines is unattainable even in the area that has the maximum wind speed, and at least
a 10-kW rated power wind turbine should be installed for vertical – axis wind turbines in the
research area of interest. In terms of the solar energy potential, the maximum electric power gen-
eration potential is 413, 186 MJ/monthmesh, which is applied by mono-crystalline bulk PV.

Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 51 200 7609; fax: +82 51 294 2256.
E-mail address: jjyee@dau.ac.kr (J.-J. Yee).

0306-2619/$ - see front matter Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2013.12.060
100 I.-A. Yeo, J.-J. Yee / Applied Energy 119 (2014) 99–117
1. Introduction
According to the ‘World Urbanization Prospects’ report (2011
revision) of the United Nations [1], 50% of the total world popula-
tion resides in urban areas, and this value is higher in most devel-
oped countries. It is predicted that the urbanization trend will
continue. The speed and degree of urbanization depend on the re-
gion and country (Table 1). Because urban development and
growth cannot be stopped, it is desirable to create an environmen-
tally friendly city that functions as a city in the urban life cycle in
terms of ‘sustainable development’; this city would use efficient
energy, circulate natural resources, and provide a comfortable
living environment.
From this perspective, an environmentally friendly city can
achieve comprehensive low energy consumption by developing
an energy structure of compact energy demand and reasonable en-
ergy supply in the urban planning stage and consistent control for
demand side management (DSM), such as load management and
energy efficiency, and supply side management (SSM) in the urban
operation stage. Considering that the previously developed struc-
ture of the urban energy demand and supply is difficult to change
or improve, demand-driven energy planning is needed at the urban
planning stage. In other words, the foundation of the lower energy
structure should be set in the urban planning stage by predicting
the energy demand to reduce excessive energy production. To
establish energy supply planning at this stage, urban energy supply
facility planning should optimally combine an economical, stable,
and environmentally friendly supply, and the energy demand
should be satisfied. The energy supply facility’s location should
be based on the examination of the present condition of the urban
energy supply facility in the existing city and the evaluation of the
feasibility or potential of various urban energy resources to maxi-
mize the utilization of regional natural resources of a city and clean
energy resources.
To address energy demand stability and to make energy supply
facilities economically and environmentally friendly through en-
ergy supply planning, a link between energy scenarios and site
location support technology is required. Based on the energy sce-
narios, alternative scenarios in terms of the urban policy and econ-
omy are suggested, and based on the site location supportive
technology, the availability of urban natural resources and energy
is evaluated in terms of the technical aspects. Considering that eco-
nomic or policy evaluation is possible for alternative energy sce-
narios based on a technical review of whether the site location
planning of urban energy supply facilities suffice for efficient land
use and environmentally friendly energy resources, the major pri-
ority in the planning process is to collect information on urban en-
ergy resource availability and site-location potential in terms of
the technical aspects. Materials such as the ‘potential map of the
site location for energy supply plants and natural energy resources
availability’ are especially helpful for integrated urban energy
Table 1
World urbanization prospects (UN report-2011 revision).
Category 1950 1970 1990 2010 2030
World 28.8 36.1 42.6 50.5 59.0
More developed regionsa 52.6 64.7 70.8 75.2 80.9
Less developed regionsb 17.6 25.3 34.8 45.1 55.0
The least developed regionsc 7.3 13.1 21.0 29.2 40.8
Korea 21.4 40.7 73.8 83.0 87.7
a
Europe, Northern America, Australia/New Zealand, and Japan.
b
Africa, Asia (excluding Japan), Latin America, and the Caribbean coast area
(including Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia).
c
48 Countries, 33 in Africa, 9 in Asia, 5 in Oceania, and 1 in Latin America and the
Caribbean coast area.
supply planning, which can be used for decision making about
which types of energy plants are suitable on which locations and
which types of natural energy resources are available in urban
areas.
Based on these perspectives, the technology discussed in this
paper proposes the development of a site location supportive
map for urban energy supply plants and renewable energy avail-
ability, which is one of the site location assistive technologies for
supporting energy supply planning. The scope of this study is to
apply the environment and energy geographic information
(E-GIS) DB1 to artificial neural network techniques and to analyze
the potential of the site location for various energy supply plants
and the availability of renewable energy resources in the urban area.
After taking these perspectives into consideration, this study
develops a site location potential model for urban energy supply
plants and renewable energy availability, which is a general-pur-
pose urban energy supply planning support model for an environ-
mentally friendly city. This model will address the technical
methodology of examining the potential for the suitability of urban
energy supply plants and renewable energy latency in a region by
making the site location for an urban energy supply planning sup-
port material in the draft plan development stage, which is the ba-
sis for optimized planning through further decision making in
terms of economic and urban policies. Potential practical users of
this model are urban planners, energy planners, or engineers,
who are supplied with potential maps of the urban energy supply
plants and renewable energy availability as a mesh unit. Other po-
tential users include people in the energy business or citizens be-
cause the issue of locating energy supply facility site is related to
economic and urban policies.
The research is presented in 3 stages. Section 2 examines the
existing research trends regarding the regional energy potential
and site location planning support systems; it investigates the cur-
rent urban supply planning of the Republic of Korea and sets the
scope of the methodology of environmentally friendly urban en-
ergy supply planning that this study proposes. Section 3 proposes
an artificial neural network (ANN) model of the potential of urban
energy supply plants and renewable energy availability by inte-
grating the current energy-related legal system and standards
and energy plant facilities, which affect energy facility site plan-
ning, into the E-GIS DB of the Republic of Korea. The details of
the E-GIS construction model, including the algorithms employed,
are described, and Section 4 describes the results of testing the
ANN model of the potential for energy supply plants and renew-
able energy availability for a case study area by utilizing the
E-GIS DB of a planned city in the Republic of Korea.
2. Materials and scope of the article
2.1. Literature review
There are extensive studies on the discovery of environmentally
friendly resources and making energy available worldwide. Plant-
ing and producing crops in a fertile farmland or field can provide
customers with a stable supply of crops. Suitable sites can be used
2050 to convert natural resources into effective energy, to produce en-
68.7 ergy, and to stabilize the supply and demand in terms of the energy
86.2 production. A similar concept, ‘energy potential’, which estimates
65.9 the effective energy usability from natural resources, has been
54.7
90.8
1
The E-GIS DB is the information about the environment and energy planning in
both a planned city and an existing city. This DB contains building information
(building coverage ratio, floor, width, usage, material, and HVAC system type), land
cover (artificial cover, water, bare soil, and trees), and topography in the form of a
200 m  200 m mesh to reflect the resolution of the urban block to evenly manage
the entire urban area and simultaneously control each unit [2,3].
 I.-A. Yeo, J.-J. Yee / Applied Energy 119 (2014) 99–117
studied at the regional and national levels. According to existing
studies, the definition of ‘energy potential’ varies. Some definitions
include resource availability, theoretically determined energy, the
energy output by a specific technology, and economically feasible
energy. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) charac-
terizes the energy potential as ‘resource’, ‘technical’, ‘economic’,
and ‘market’, forming a pyramid structure [4]. The ‘resource poten-
tial’ is found by the theoretical environmental physics potential
and energy carriers in the resource. The ‘technical potential’ is
found by the resource potential that is limited by the performances
of the energy systems, topography, and land cover factors. The
‘economic potential’ is found by the technical potential that is lim-
ited by the cost of the applied technology and fuel. The ‘market po-
tential’ is found by the economic potential that is limited by the
effect of the policy implementation, regulatory restrictions, invest-
ment, and regional energy resources factors. Here, the upper
potential can be reasonably reached by establishing a lower poten-
tial, which makes it easier to use efficient energy from natural
resources.
Extensive studies on estimating the resource potential based on
resource investigation and finding the technical potential applied
by the statistics of energy-related technology and information on
topographic limitations have been conducted, mainly in the United
States and Europe. There have been studies on the evaluation of the
economy under specific technical conditions and energy system
allocation by least cost analysis. A natural/renewable resource po-
tential map is usually constructed for a national project, whereas a
technical potential map reflects technical characteristics at the re-
gional level.
The NREL developed the renewable energy resource distribu-
tion of solar, wind, geothermal, hydrogen, and biomass per state
or county unit and created resource potential maps that utilize
boundary files such as political, infrastructure/utility, federal lands,
parks, census data, and natural geographic features using Google
Maps. The technical potential map includes information on avail-
able land or urban open space, the system capacity potential, and
the energy generation potential, which finds the renewable energy
resources potential, system power, topographical limitations, and
environment and land use constraints.
For decision making that is related to urban energy supply
planning, the materials on urban resources and the technical po-
tential should be supported. The absence of these materials is det-
rimental when an integrated urban energy planning process must
be systemized. Resources and the technical potential are indis-
pensable factors for estimating the economic potential, which is
moderately affected, and the market potential, which is depen-
dent on the national or regional economy and the political
situation. The energy potential that is addressed in this study is
characterized by the technical potential, which can find the plan-
ning of supportive materials with objective results using engi-
neering methodology.
Research studies on the technical potential that was combined
with GIS-based spatial technology to support urban renewable en-
ergy and clean energy supply planning are shown in Table 2. For
the solar energy technical potential, Gadsden and Rylatt [5] studied
the methodology of urban planners’ potential to use urban solar
energy for a passive solar, solar hot water, and photovoltaic (PV)
system. Janke [6] applied the multi-criteria decision-making meth-
od to select a farm site for wind and solar energy generation in
Colorado in the United States using resource and land cover infor-
mation. Arnette and Zobel [7] analyzed the renewable energy
potential based on the resource intensity of wind, solar, and bio-
mass energy and the constraints of topography and regulations
for the Appalachian area in the southern part of the United States.
Charabi and Gastli [8] studied land suitability for large PV farms in
Oman while using the fuzzy multi-criteria method.
101
For the wind energy technical potential, Nguyen [9] studied the
wind energy density in Vietnam under a domestic wind technology
condition, and Aydin et al. [10] derived the priority site map for
wind turbine construction planning while considering the wind
energy potential and acceptable land in western Turkey. Hossain
et al. [11] constructed wind energy potential maps that were based
on parameters such as the yearly mean wind speed at the hub
height, the Weibull distribution of the wind speed, the energy out-
put of the turbine, and the plant load factor (PLF), at a resolution of
1 km, to develop a wind farm in India. Mari et al. [12] made wind
energy potential maps that were based on the yearly mean wind
speed, full load hours (FLH), and the annual energy production
(AEP) for a resolution of 2 km in the web-oriented GIS-based DSS
developed as a part of the WIND-GIS project for supporting the re-
gional renewable energy policy. Sliz-Szkliniarz and Vogt [13] found
the available locations for wind farm sites based on the spatial,
ecological policies, and the restriction standards of the potential
factors of the wind resources.
Larentis et al. [14] examined the hydro energy potential with
available land use area by exploring the dam location potential
based on the regional stream flow data, selecting a site for hydro
power systems (dam axis spotting and powerhouse spotting) and
optimizing the system allocation.
For the geothermal energy technical potential, Ondreka et al.
[15] presented the specific heat extraction of borehole heat
exchangers (BHEs) that were influenced by subsurface conditions
and the use of BHEs with a heat pump for heating. Nam and Ooka
[16] presented the methodology of finding the energy potential
from a system through the thermal properties of the ground and
the heat extraction rate for optimizing the system design for a
ground source heat pump (GSHP) and derived the potential map
of the geothermal resources (geology and ground water velocity,
ground water level and pumping regulation) in Japan and of the
location of available wells for direct heat exchange.
Studies on biomass, where many research studies have been
conducted because of the diversity of resources, have revolved
around resource investigation rather than technical aspects. For
the bio energy technical potential, Perpiñá et al. [17] examined
the distribution of the agricultural and forest biomass residues
with a resolution of 1 km and determined the potential location
of the bioenergy tapping region and the bioenergy plant. Ragaglini
et al. [18] studied land suitability for biodiesel production by sun-
flowers by considering potential sunflower yields, the energy effi-
ciency, the supply chain, and cost information for Tuscany in Italy.
Hiloidhari and Baruah [19], with the help of satellite images, inves-
tigated the potential of a decentralized electricity generation out-
put by extracting available space for rice straw residues from rice
croplands in the Lakhimpur district of Assam in India. Tenerelli
and Carver [20] constructed a land capability model using multi-
criteria approaches for the soil climate and topographic factors,
to assess the energy conversion potential of perennial crops for
the Yorkshire and Humber region in the northern UK. Höhn et al.
[21] developed a bio-methane potential map by integrating
amounts of available feedstock and spatial distribution in the
southern Finland and suggested site locations of biogas plants by
a road network analysis that were optimized in transportation
effect.
Urban natural energy planning is continuously supported by the
development of individual resource planning and integrated plan-
ning supporting tools. Bravo et al. [22], in addition to Janke and
Arnette and Zobel [6,7], examined the system capacity and energy
output of the renewable energy available area based on constraints
such as land use, altitude, and potential productivity, as shown in
Table 2. Ramachandra and Shruthi [23] developed a methodology
to find the map of the seasonal irradiation, wind speed, biomass re-
sources, and small hydropower capacity, and Belmonte et al. [24]
102 I.-A. Yeo, J.-J. Yee / Applied Energy 119 (2014) 99–117

Table 2
Research trends of the technical potential map of renewable energy.

Authors Mapping method Wc Parameters Maps

Filtering
Ca Sb (+)
()
p p
Solar [5] (Equation) S: Roof orientation, roof inclination, solar Extracted footprint for domestic heat
energy potential (solar water heating system water and thematic map of the solar
for dwelling, ownership of the property, energy supplied
income of occupants, number of occupants,
floor area of dwelling, and type of dwelling)
C: Suitability of solar water heating for
housing (irradiation, orientation, hot water
demand, and domestic hot water system
information), air temp., and land use
p
[6] W: Wind potential, solar potential, distance to Ideal wind/solar farm location
transmission lines, distance to cities,
population density, distance to roads, land
cover, and federal lands
p
[7] C: For wind/solar, resource strength, Estimated annual generation at potential
geography, topography, and regulations wind farm/solar farm site
C: For biomass, co-fire generation potential
and cost of the existing coal plant
p p
[8] (Fuzzy) W: Solar radiation, land accessibility, and land Spatial distribution of annual solar
use radiation, constraints of layers including
slopes, and spatial distribution of distance
to major roads
C: Environmentally sensitive areas,
hydrographic line, and sand/dust risk
p p
Wind [9] S: Specifications of a wind turbine and wind Yearly wind energy production
speed
C: Distance from roads, railroads, airports,
cities, water, forest, protected areas, and high-
altitude areas
p
[10] (Fuzzy) W: Wind energy potential, potential locations, Current wind potential, overall
and environmental objectives environmental performances index, and
priority sites
p
[11] S: Wind speed height, wind speed Wind speed map and wind power
distribution, and specifications of a wind potential map (annual energy output and
turbine plant load factor)
p p
[12] S: Station site (elevation, air density, and Yearly mean wind speed, full load hours,
minimum distance from electric grid), wind and annual energy production
data (time period and sensing height), and
wind turbine characteristics (rated power,
hub height, and swept area)
C: Protected areas and landscape
p p
[13] S: Wind speed at hub height, roughness Annual mean wind speed, annual number
length, Weibull distribution, turbines power of load hours, energy generated by
curves, and full load hours per grid cell turbines, installed wind power, and
available area for wind turbine
construction
C: Urban areas, power grid, roads, railways,
water bodies, forest areas, altitude, slope, and
protected areas
p p
Hydro [14] S: Downstream and drainage Hydro power plant location
C: Excluded zones
p
Geo-thermal [15] S: Necessary length, heat extraction for the Specific heat extraction of borehole heat
considered depth, territory rock condition, exchangers (BHE)
and thickness of each layer
p
[16] S: Heat exchange rate (pumping rate and heat Geology and ground water velocity,
exchange temp.) and effect of the system on ground water level and pumping
underground environment (heat conductivity regulation, and available wells for direct
and heat capacity of soil, ground water flow, heat exchange
and water quality)
p p
Biomass [17] S: Biomass plant cultivated area, residue Biomass distribution and optimal locations
coefficients, and availability coefficients
C: Distance from water bodies, protected
areas, hydrography, airports, slope, road ways,
electric lines and natural gas pipelines, and
residential areas
 I.-A. Yeo, J.-J. Yee / Applied Energy 119 (2014) 99–117
p
[18]
p
[19]
p p
[20]
p p
[21] (Equation)
a
C: Constraints.
b
S: Selectives.
c
W: Weights.
suggested a quantitative index and map that examines irradiation,
wind, hydro, and biomass as energy sources.
In terms of data utilization, the remote sensing data are increas-
ingly applied to identify resources, such as irradiation and biomass,
serving as the technological development of the GIS-based data
and satellite data acquisition. Martins et al. [25] derived a solar en-
ergy resource map by utilizing the satellite irradiation model of
Brazil and NREL irradiation data by the SWERA project and came
up with a user-friendly renewable energy DB. Nguyen and Pearce
[26] investigated the PV potential modeled by yearly irradiation
through satellite data and suggested a methodology to support site
selection for PV system installment based on the census, land use,
and transmission line information. Straub and Koch [27] proposed
a methodology to calculate the timber volume density according to
the classification of trees using airborne laser scanning and multi-
spectral line scanner data and offered detailed information on
forest residues as potential energy resources and the spatial distri-
bution of biomass energy.
2.2. Current energy planning in the urban planning process of the
Republic of Korea
2.2.1. Urban energy planning process
The national energy plan of the Republic of Korea constitutes
the ‘Basic Plan on Energy Use Rationalization’, which induces en-
ergy-saving low CO2 emission in terms of the demand; the ‘Pri-
mary Energy Plan’ of oil, natural gas, coal, and overseas
resources; the ‘Basic Plan on Electricity Demand and Supply’ in
Table 3
Classification of the energy use plan establishment area.
Classification
Group I: National land development
Group II: Energy development
Group III: SOC facility construction
103
S: Soil group, weather conditions, and grain Biodiesel yield, NER (energy efficiency),
yield GHG saving, and land suitability
S: Rice crop area, grain yield, residue Village wise surplus rice straw residue
production ratio, availability factor of rice biomass potential/power potential
straw, lower heating value of rice straw,
overall conversion efficiency of the power
plants, and power plant operating time
p
W: Rainfall, degree day, soil (texture, wetness, Land capability map for energy crops
pH, and depth), and slope
S: Land cover, arable cereals, horticulture,
improved grassland, set-aside grass, and
agriculture land capability
C: Water bodies, flooding risk, erosion risk,
and protected areas
S: Available feedstock energy, feedstock Bio-methane potential intensity, potential
collection area, amount of potential biomass, plant locations
theoretical installed power, annual running
time of plant
C: Weighted distance allocated to a facility
from road line
terms of the supply; and the ‘Basic Plan for New and Renewable
Energy Technology Development and Usage/Distribution’. Local
energy planning includes details on renewable energy, integrated
energy, and the unused energy supply, while considering the
trends and prospects of the energy demand and supply by predict-
ing the energy demand for local planning to induce a stable energy
supply and environmentally friendly energy use.
The current urban energy planning process of South Korea fol-
lows the ‘Regulations regarding the establishment of an energy
usage plan and a consultation process’ from Article 20 [28] in the
Enforcement Ordinance of the Energy Use Rationalization Act.
According to the above regulations, business proprietors of na-
tional land development, energy development, and the construc-
tion of social overhead capital facilities (SOC) conduct energy
demand forecasts and supply these plans to administrative divi-
sions at the metropolitan city, county, and district levels, which
are the levels of urban management planning. The proprietor then
establishes and submits an energy use plan, which includes an im-
pact analysis of the energy consumption on CO2 emissions, meth-
ods to enhance the energy use efficiency, and methods to reduce
CO2 emissions through energy use rationalization, to the Minister
of Knowledge and Economy. This process is performed to conserve
urban energy and manage CO2 emissions, which is achieved by
submitting an energy conservation plan for each building after
the approval of the urban plan.
According to the above-stated regulations, the energy usage
plan is distinguished as ‘national land development’ for a district
or site planning project, ‘energy development’ for urban facilities,
Projects
Urban development
Industrial complex development
Tourism complex development
Development promotion district/integrated regional development
Mining development
Power plant construction
Gas business
Harbor construction
Railway construction
Airport construction
104 I.-A. Yeo, J.-J. Yee / Applied Energy 119 (2014) 99–117
and ‘special facility’ for facilities such as the SOC facility (Table 3).
This study addresses a range of ‘‘urban planning’’ concepts in
‘‘Group I: national land development’’ from the perspective of gen-
eral energy planning. The urban development ranges for special
use, such as industrial or tourism complexes, are not considered.
2.2.2. Status of urban energy supply planning
The current urban energy supply planning of the Republic of
Korea consists of a power supply plan, a heat supply plan, and an
emergency energy supply plan, which are based on the urban en-
ergy demand prediction. Energy supply facility planning that pro-
vides the city with heat and electricity is organized into a project
area when the supply reserve is insufficient from the power supply
network, and an existing heat supply network around the project
area is examined with respect to heat and electricity. At this time,
a plan is established and executed after investigating the feasibility
of the construction area depending on the characteristics of the
urban development project and the consideration standard of the
energy supply facilities.
The heat supply plan is classified as direct heat, such as inte-
grated energy, and fuel supply, such as LNG and LPG. The existing
direct heat supply plan begins with executing feasibility studies for
community energy under the characteristics of urban development
and the consideration standard of the ‘Base Plan on the Integrated
Energy Supply’. The community energy supply (CES) assignment
and notification standards are given in Table 4. A new integrated
energy supply facility is hosted in or around the project area after
assigning and announcing the applied area of the integrated energy
supply for the area that meets the standards, as shown in Table 4,
and examining the CES project’s feasibility. The heat supply by the
fuel is examined by the available fuel sources in the region accord-
ing to the ‘fuel use regulation notice’. The appropriate fuel sources
for the planned area are selected after investigating the environ-
mental friendliness, stability, balance of supply and demand, re-
lated laws, and other properties for each fuel and heating
method applied in the energy supply facility. Depending on the se-
lected fuel, a detailed pipe network and a pipe construction scale
are calculated after examining the feasibility of the supply facility
and the pipe arrangement area.
The power supply plan is established for substation construc-
tion in the project area after investigating the power supply net-
work around the project area. The power supply plan from the
substation to consumers is set up, and the supply capacity and
equipment plan for detached housing, commercial areas, public
facilities, parks, and street lamps are fixed power supply targets
that are dependent on the uses of the power supply.
The reserve power facility plan is included in the existing en-
ergy supply plan and prevents a secondary accident caused by
lights, elevators, the water supply, and air-conditioning devices.
This plan ensures minimum security power for energy supply mea-
sures under emergencies such as power failure or a natural disas-
ter. Energy supply facility planning, such as the installation of a
storage battery for a small-scale system and an uninterruptible
Table 4
Standards for the evaluation of the integrated energy supply (Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy of the Rep. of Korea).
Classification
District cooling and heating When an independent heat source facility is required
When there is a usable heat source within 5 km
CES_district cooling and heating
CES_industrial complexa
a
Supply scale (area of industry using many steams) is more than 50,000 m2; the fuel usage amount is more than 50,000 TOE; and heat production capacity > electricity
production capacity.
power supply (UPS) system for emergency power generators, mon-
itoring/control systems, security facilities, and important computer
systems for a large-scale system, is included to provide reserve
energy in an emergency or contingency situation.
The existing energy supply plan can be summarized as the pro-
cess of predicting the urban energy demand, investigating the
amount of energy supply that is linked with the energy supply net-
work near the project area, examining the feasibility of the induc-
tion for each energy supply, and establishing a plan for a new
energy supply facility. However, the following points suggest the
necessities for reinforcing the energy supply plan in urban energy
planning with the existing plan for a new energy supply facility.
r The energy sources that satisfy the legal standard or intro-
duction standard have been listed without providing an appro-
priate combination of the energy systems.
s The new and renewable energy plan in a building group unit
focuses on building use and is simply dependent on legally
advised standards [29].
t An integrated consideration is insufficient for the factors that
are essential for the optimal site location of urban energy sup-
ply systems (i.e., the natural energy resource potential should
be considered for planning renewable energy plants).
Therefore, this study proposed a methodology for a site location
potential model for urban energy supply plants and renewable en-
ergy availability that considers the appropriate combinations of ur-
ban energy supply facilities such as renewable energy, integrated
energy, and unused energy for lower energy consumption, lower
CO2, and stable energy demand and supply in urban energy supply
planning.
2.3. Current energy planning in the urban planning process of the
Republic of Korea
The environmentally friendly city planning that this study pro-
posed suggests that controlling urban planning together with the
E-GIS DB is important in addressing the issues of low energy and
ecology simultaneously. Once the urban physical structure is
formed according to urban development, the urban climate takes
on urban climate characteristics that are different from pre-devel-
opment, and the real energy demand appears after the urban oper-
ation stage. When the urban energy demand forecasting algorithm
is integrated with the E-GIS DB, which is constructed in the urban
planning stage, complete energy and environment information at
the time of urban development can be acquired in advance. If pro-
vided with a more precisely predicted value of the energy demand,
alternative energy scenarios can optimize the cost effectiveness
(LCC), CO2 emission reduction (LCCO2), renewable energy expan-
sion, and energy self-sufficiency as substitutes for the existing
baseline of the energy supply plan. When optimal site selection
for urban energy facilities is completed according to the quantita-
tive evaluation of energy supply scenarios and the site location
Thermal load, max. (Gcal/h) Heat use (Gcal/year) Heat density (Gcal/km2 h)
150 300,000 30
30 60,000 30
30 60,000 30
– – 60
 I.-A. Yeo, J.-J. Yee / Applied Energy 119 (2014) 99–117
potential for urban energy supply plants and renewable energy
availability, the optimal urban design process can be used to
support decision making for urban planners, policy makers, and re-
lated bodies.
3. Proposal of a site location potential model for the urban
energy supply plants and renewable energy availability using
the E-GIS DB and ANN
3.1. E-GIS DB construction for the factors for artificial neural network
analysis
In this study, the concept that was suggested to provide sup-
portive technology when finding an optimal site location of an ur-
ban energy supply plant in the planning stage of an
environmentally friendly city is a site location potential model
and the derived planning supportive materials, which includes
the technical potential for a site, such as the classes of the urban
energy supply plants‘ availability and the natural energy genera-
tion, which were deduced from the non-linear relations between
various environment and energy planning variables and the power
supply capacity of the energy plants or natural energy resources.
To address this issue, the proposed methodologies in this study
are as follows:
First is the utilization of environment and energy planning vari-
ables with a mesh unit in E-GIS DB, which is applied in a series of
processes of modeling urban space, predicting urban microclimate
and energy demand, and supporting energy supply planning, as de-
scribed in Section 2.3. Second is the adoption of artificial intelli-
gence (AI) computing for deducing non-linear algorithms
between environment and energy planning variables and the site
location potential. Third is the linkage of the obtained result with
the mesh unit that was derived from the site location potential
algorithms to a planning city by giving feedback on the E-GIS DB
and planning materials, such as the visual maps and quantitative
values, which can support finding energy supply plant sites. The
proposed methodologies are specified through Sections 3.2–3.4.
Viewer
Modeler Solver
- Microclimate
Mesh - Heating/cooling load
Urban space DB
GIS DB - End-use (Electricity/heat)
- Primary energy
Integrated Fig .3
Fig .4
Output
E-GIS DB
Input
(Spreadsheet & Visual
Compare Maps)
Fig. 1. Composition of EnerISS.
105
3.2. Use of E-GIS DB for ANN
The E-GIS DB is basic information from the Energy Integrated
Planning Support System (EnerISS) [2,3] for environmentally
friendly urban planning, which was developed by the authors.
The E-GIS DB was initially structured in EnerISS Modeler, where
urban GIS was collected, compiled in a mesh DB, and modeled in
2D/3D space, and accumulates the forecasted value of the urban
climate and energy demand in EnerISS Solver; it deduces the clas-
ses of the urban energy supply plants‘ availability and the natural
energy generation potential in a mesh unit in EnerISS Evaluator,
which has been used to present input data for each module imple-
mentation and to obtain feedback from the outputs. The E-GIS DB
supports each planning process, such as urban environment plan-
ning, urban energy demand forecasting, and energy supply plan-
ning, by providing the result of each module as visual maps and
quantitative values (Fig. 1).
The E-GIS DB addressed in this study is divided into three con-
cepts, such as (a) input and output datasets for constructing ANN
models to be built in Evaluator, (b) input datasets for implement-
ing the ANN models in a project area of urban energy supply plan-
ning, and (c) the output dataset obtained from implementing the
ANN models in a project area. E-GIS DB as (a) input and output
datasets for constructing ANN models is used for deriving algo-
rithms of the classes of the urban energy supply plants‘ availability
and the natural energy generation potential. Nation-wide data of
environment and energy information with the land use level, such
as energy supply plants, geography, meteorology, and land use, are
collected and linked with the mesh DB to develop ANN algorithms
that support environmentally friendly energy plant planning in the
urban energy supply planning stage (Fig. 2). E-GIS DB as (b) input
datasets for implementing the proposed ANN models includes ur-
ban GIS and the forecasted energy demand as a result of applying
Modeler and Solver in a project area of urban energy supply plan-
ning, which is constructed by region-wide data for entering into
the proposed ANN algorithm (Fig. 3). E-GIS DB as (c) output data
from the ANN model implementation is the result of applying Eval-
uator, which is deduced as the classes of the urban energy supply
plants’ availability and the natural energy generation potential in a
project area; these are finally suggested as planning supportive
Evaluator
Scope of data use
- Energy supply scenario
Evaluation DB
- Optimal facility site
(LCC, LCCO2, stability
(Artificial Neural
of energy supply)
Network) Fig .2
Validation
Energy consumption
unit DB
106 I.-A. Yeo, J.-J. Yee / Applied Energy 119 (2014) 99–117

Energy-related laws, system,

Geography and climate Energy information
and standards
Environmental Urban planning Energy demand
condition (Specific-use area ) (heat and electricity)

Slope

Altitude

Road
Power plant capacity (KW)
0 - 250,000
Direction 250,000 - 700,000
700,000-1,200,000

Land cover 1,200,000-2,240,000

2,240,000-4,000,000

Input dataset Output dataset

Fig. 2. E-GIS DB as input and output datasets for constructing ANN models to be built in Evaluator.

Modeler E-GIS DB Solver

Building Information Urban environment and energy planning and management Climate
information
Field Value
FID 1223
shape Polygon
ID 1224
XMIN 186400
XMAX 186600
YMIN 436000
YMAX 436200
case no. 1224 Electricity demand
water temp. 25.5
water area ratio 0
soil area ratio 0.013469
DB tree area ratio 0
DB
tree height 6
BCR 0.100891
build width 11.598349
build height 72.981503
build mater 2
build use type 2
Land and topography 200 m air cond type 3 Heat demand
roof green area 0
wall green area 0
air-cond temp 26
soil emissivity 0.2
roof emissivity 0.06
wall emissivity 0.3

Urban GIS Mesh database Forecasted value

Fig. 3. E-GIS DB as input datasets for implementing the ANN models in a project area of urban energy supply planning.

materials for energy supply planning by the feedback given in (b)
(Fig. 4).
The E-GIS DB as (a) input and output datasets for constructing
ANN models to be built in Evaluator was described for ‘data prep-
aration’ in Section 3.3. The E-GIS DB as in (b) and (c) was used for
input datasets to the proposed ANN and produced an output data-
set by an applicability study on the research subject area in
Section 4.
3.3. Development of an ANN for a site location potential model
3.3.1. Background of an ANN application in comparative studies
The ability to predict future energy supply potential in the ur-
ban planning stage derived from the environment and energy plan-
ning information is essential for supporting decision making that is
related to energy supply planning. Most conditions that affect ur-
ban energy consumption represent non-linearities, such as rela-
tions between urban social and physical factors, including land
use, population, building density, high rise buildings, building
use, and urban geometry [30], the combination of urban geometry
and natural energy acquisition [31–33], and the combination of
building elements and energy consumption [34]. Therefore, urban
energy supply potential should be well captured with the non-lin-
ear relations between the environment and energy planning
information.
As an approach to the non-linear modeling, soft computing
methods such as ANN, fuzzy, and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference
systems have good performances on non-linear modeling with
high accuracy and fast processing [35]. The ANNs are especially
considered to be the main field of AI, which includes expert
systems, fuzzy systems, genetic algorithms (GA), and all competent
tools for non-linear function fitting, pattern recognition, clustering,
time series analysis, simulations, and optimizations. An ANN has
been practically applied in a wide range of engineering fields, such
as industrial processes, power plants, building energy management
systems, and electric machinery systems, for the past 20 years [36].
In the urban energy field, such as the prediction and optimization
of energy consumption [37–46], prediction and control of power
generation systems (combustion process, thermal plant) [47–49],
wind and solar resources and power (wind speed [50–56], wind
energy [57], solar radiation [58–65], solar energy [66,67]), model-
ing and performance prediction of PV systems (solar steam gener-
ator) [68,69], and prediction of building heating and cooling load
[70–73], various research has demonstrated outstanding predic-
tion performances of applied ANN methods compared with those
of conventional linear or non-linear regression models [74–80].
 I.-A. Yeo, J.-J. Yee / Applied Energy 119 (2014) 99–117 107

Field Value Field Value Field Value Field Value

FID 1223 air temp20h 29.18 wind dir23h 136.826449 Pumping up 5
shape Polygon air temp21h 28.8 wind dir24h 175.588274 Small hydro 7
ID 1224 air temp22h 28.49 humidity01h 20.64 Coal fired 3
XMIN 186400 air temp23h 28.2 humidity02h 20.59 Oil fired 3
XMAX 186600 air temp24h 28.02 humidity03h 20.49 Solar power 5
YMIN 436000 wind speed01h 0.12 humidity04h 20.35 Wind power 2
YMAX 436200 wind speed02h 0.18 humidity05h 20.22 Co-gen 4
case no. 1224 wind speed03h 0.24 humidity06h 20.13 Mixed 8
water temp. 25.5 wind speed04h 0.28 humidity07h 20.15 Waste heat 7
water area ratio 0 wind speed05h 0.34 humidity08h 20.51 wind energy1 0.39
soil area ratio 0.013469 wind speed06h 0.4 humidity09h 20.89 wind energy2 0.39
Class tree area ratio 0 wind speed07h 0.27 humidity10h 20.89 wind energy3 0.21
1 tree height 6 wind speed08h 0.15 humidity11h 20.63 wind energy4 0.09
2 BCR 0.100891 wind speed09h 0.12 humidity12h 20.45 wind energy5 0.02
build width 11.598349 wind speed10h 0.26 humidity13h 20.38 wind energy6 0.01
3
build height 72.981503 wind speed11h 0.38 humidity14h 20.19 wind energy7 18.31
4 build mater 2 wind speed12h 0.31 humidity15h 20 wind energy8 59.64
5 build use type 2 wind speed13h 0.32 humidity16h 19.87 wind energy9 9.21
6 air cond type 3 wind speed14h 0.62 humidity17h 19.84 wind energy10 2.01
7 roof green area 0 wind speed15h 0.73 humidity18h 19.95 wind energy11 3.6
wall green area 0 wind speed16h 0.87 humidity19h 20.12 wind energy12 5.38
8
air-cond temp 26 wind speed17h 0.85 humidity20h 20.24 solar energy1 7.24
9 soil emissivity 0.2 wind speed18h 0.62 humidity21h 20.38 solar energy2 10.71
10 roof emissivity 0.06 wind speed19h 0.45 humidity22h 20.67 solar energy3 14.13
wall emissivity 0.3 wind speed20h 0.47 humidity23h 20.76 solar energy4 16.65
Facility name (abbr.) alt 23.380952 wind speed21h 0.49 humidity24h 20.77 solar energy5 16.93
detached hous shape factor1 0.36477 wind speed22h 0.31 E-demand01h 0.39 solar energy6 16.15
drain pump stn
shape factor2 0.157336 wind speed23h 0.19 E-demand02h 0.39 solar energy7 99.1
railr
boost stn shape factor3 0.238947 wind speed24h 0.13 E-demand03h 0.21 solar energy8 89.02
relig shape factor4 0.646594 wind dir01h 270 E-demand04h 0.09 solar energy9 83.87
vehicle relat FAR 1.840794 wind dir02h 297.266044 E-demand05h 0.02 solar energy10 78.88
gas stn mesh mo. 1224 wind dir03h 298.955024 E-demand06h 0.01 solar energy11 73.92
supply handl air temp01h 27.4 wind dir04h 291.786789 E-demand07h 18.31 solar energy12 69.38
parking space air temp02h 27.39 wind dir05h 298.027487 E-demand08h 59.64
energy supply air temp03h 27.25 wind dir06h 295.841933 E-demand09h 9.21
kindergart air temp04h 27.14 wind dir07h 301.586338 E-demand10h 2.01
edu
air temp05h 27.04 wind dir08h 270 E-demand11h 3.6
sew dispos
community cent air temp06h 27.01 wind dir09h 246.443536 E-demand12h 5.38
post office air temp07h 27.06 wind dir10h 292.619865 E-demand13h 7.24
public bus air temp08h 27.6 wind dir11h 270 E-demand14h 10.71
fire stn air temp09h 28.1 wind dir12h 270 E-demand15h 14.13
police stn air temp10h 28.95 wind dir13h 36.423574 E-demand16h 16.65
distrib/exhib/sale air temp11h 29.61 wind dir14h 72.103449 E-demand17h 16.93
self-suffic air temp12h 30.14 wind dir15h 80.505475 E-demand18h 16.15
200 m complex (bus) air temp13h 30.82 wind dir16h 90 E-demand19h 99.1
commer (gen)
air temp14h 31.13 wind dir17h 90 E-demand20h 89.02
commer (cent)
resid commer air temp15h 30.88 wind dir18h 100.304508 E-demand21h 83.87
commer air temp16h 30.59 wind dir19h 111.03947 E-demand22h 78.88
apartm hous air temp17h 30.36 wind dir20h 106.774744 E-demand23h 73.92
detached hous air temp18h 29.97 wind dir21h 110.153074 E-demand24h 69.38
(block typed) air temp19h 29.52 wind dir22h 122.995885 Hydraulic 7

(a) Spatial data (b) Attribute data

Fig. 4. E-GIS DB as output dataset obtained from implementing the ANN models in a project area of urban energy supply planning.

Recently, research on finding optimized solutions has been at-

target
tempted by applying hybrid systems, such as fuzzy neural net-
works, GAs and neural networks, wavelets and neural networks,
and GAs and fuzzy logic, which were combined with two or more
AI methods such as ANNs, fuzzy logic, GAs, or wavelets [81–88].
The reasons that the ANN method was adopted in this study ANN
Comparing
were as follows: First, the main advantage of an ANN is that data input (Artificial Neural Network) output
can be structured even in cases of having highly non-linear rela-
tions between input and output variables, and its processing is effi-
cient. Second, an E-GIS DB can provide input and output variables
with quantitative values; therefore, the step to quantify ambiguous adjusting weights
or fuzzy knowledge is unnecessary in this study. Third, the ANN Fig. 5. The general process of the ANN calculation.
method has been approved as being reliable according to various
research on building and urban energy.
the network performances within the black box. Although the ini-
tial weights and biases can be provided as random values, they are
3.3.2. Description of the ANNs
replaced with gradually more appropriate values by decreasing the
The ANN algorithm has a similar structure to the human neural
errors from repeated learning [63]. In this context, the numerical
network system; it imitates the structure of the human brain and
expression of an ANN is as follows:
its operational principles and conducts predictions based on re-
peated trainings. An ANN is considered to be a ‘black box’ that in- X
p
uj ¼ wji yi ð1Þ
cludes a series of complex equations to derive the tendencies of the
i¼0
target dataset from a combination of the inputs in the dataset and
improves the outcome by repeated training. The general structure yj ¼ uðuj  hj Þ ð2Þ
of the ANN is shown in Fig. 5. An ANN forms a non-linear structure
by integrating transfer functions such as a sigmoid on each node where p is the Number of source nodes in the input or neurons in the
and weights and biases, and it connects the nodes and determines output layer; w the Weights; y the Input data set or signals; h:
108 I.-A. Yeo, J.-J. Yee / Applied Energy 119 (2014) 99–117

Threshold value and u Activation function (/ðxÞ ¼ 1þe1 x , in case of

the sigmoid logistic non-linear function).
The standard steps for designing a neural network [89] are di-
vided into three parts, namely the data collection, ANN modeling,
and application. Data collection is generally conducted with an
ANN analysis tool environment. ANN modeling is performed while
creating and configuring the network, initializing the weights and
biases and training and validating the network. An application of
the network is the act of predicting a result (the output datasets)
by applying input datasets to the proposed ANN model. The pro-
posed steps for designing the ANN in this study are shown in Fig. 7.
To improve the total performance of the ANN, it is necessary to
check the input and the target datasets, select the network algo-
rithm, load the data, train with the data, and check the perfor-
mance in the process. To validate the network’s performance, the
algorithm is made more accurate by ensuring that the mean square
error (MSE) is smaller, the test set error (TSE) and the validation set
error (VSE) have more similar characteristics, over-fitting during
repeated calculations is not generated, and the regression coeffi-
cient between the output and the target is higher. To improve
the regression coefficient between the output and the target data-
set, it is necessary to reorganize the network and check the perfor-
mances by (a) changing the initial network weight and bias, (b)
increasing the number of neurons in the hidden layers, (c) increas-
ing the number of training vectors (adjusting the combination of 40km
training/validating/testing dataset), and (d) increasing the input 70km
dataset and changing the algorithm type.
Annual report of Korea
meteorological administration
3.3.3. Design of the ANN model
3.3.3.1. Data preparation. The E-GIS DB, which is used as (a) input
and output datasets for constructing ANN models to be built in
Fig. 6. The Automatic Weather Station network of Korea.
Evaluator, is constructed on a national scale to obtain generaliza-
tion2 ability for the ANN model. The concept of setting the input
and target data is as follows: collected, including environment planning variables such as land
The representative effective factors that influence the site loca- use, regulations, energy consumption unit for land use, land cover,
tion for the urban energy supply plants and the renewable energy road network, and DEM. In this study, the detailed fields and
availability are (a) energy-related laws, systems, and standards3; source data of the topographic, climatic, legal, and energy informa-
(b) land use, which is the standard of domestic urban energy supply tion selected for the ANN input dataset are presented in Table 5.
facilities installments; (c) energy demand and supply, such as the The input dataset included the topography (altitude, inclination,
location and capacity of existing energy supply systems and the and direction), land cover classification, accessibility (road and
power generation results; and (d) urban planning of the region, built up area), water usability (seat water and inland water), and
the geography, and the climatic conditions of the area, such as the energy demand. The location of the energy demand occurrence
district plan, land cover, and altitude and weather information. This and legal restrictions are representative of the most influential fac-
information is effectively used in urban energy supply planning by tors of the site location of urban energy supply plants. In addition,
integrating the E-GIS DB, which contains items on urban planning the topographic condition should be considered to be a constraint
and energy demand prediction. The first process integrates the fac- because the environmental conditions, such as the altitude, incli-
tors that affect the site location of the energy supply plant, and these nation, and direction, may or may not be restrictions for the energy
factors, which include planning information, information on the supply plants’ sites. The format and scope of the data that were col-
geography, climatic conditions of the area, and energy-related infor- lected as influential factors of the site location potential for energy
mation such as the legal and energy supply plan, should be unified supply plants and constructed as the E-GIS DB are shown in
into the E-GIS DB. Table 6.
The source data of the input dataset for constructing ANN mod- At the same time, the target dataset was collected as the system
els for classes of the urban energy supply plants‘ availability were capacity information of domestically installed energy supply
plants, which was provided by the Korea Electric Power Corpora-
2
A good model should have a reasonable generalization performance because one
tion (KEPCO). This information contains statistics on 486 power-
of the main purposes of using a model is to conduct an application that goes beyond generating facilities, including the locations of the energy plants,
the training domain [88]. the power generation sources, and the generating capacities. The
3
Use the ‘Act on the promotion of the development, use, and diffusion of new and mesh data were generated for these 486 points of energy supply
renewable energy [April 12, 2010, Act No.10253]’ to promote the technical develop-
plants and were overlapped with planning data, including extrac-
ment, utilization, and distribution of environmentally friendly energy. ‘Integrated
Energy Supply Act [April 29, 2010 Act No.10272]’ to enlarge the integrated energy
tions of space and attribute information from input and target data
supply (heat or heat and electricity supplied to a large number of users) and to sources, and were finally constructed as an E-GIS DB for (a) input
operate the integrated energy project and renewable energy-related laws/systems, and output datasets for ANN models to be built in Evaluator.
such as the renewable energy supply support project, the renewable energy supply Climate conditions as well as the topography are also essential
demonstration project, the one million green homes supply project, the local supply
factors for the induction of natural energy resources for renewable
project, the financial support system, renewable energy feed-in tariffs, a renewable
portfolio standard in public organizations, the renewable energy certificate system, energy use. To construct an ANN model for natural energy genera-
and the renewable energy service company system. tion potential, nation-wide meteorological data were collected
 I.-A. Yeo, J.-J. Yee / Applied Energy 119 (2014) 99–117 109

Input data: E-GIS DB Target data: Energy plants info.

Environmental Urban planning Energy demand

Domestic power plant capacity
condition (Specific-use area ) (heat and electricity)

Training
(1)

(2) Validation

Inputting ANN structure Deduction of Output Data: Site location potential map
E-GIS DB of the potential
applied area into the map for the
deduced ANN applied area
(3) (4) class
1
8 5 2
16 5
3
4
5
6
7
8

Urban energy supply plants Renewable energy availability

Fig. 7. The proposed process of designing the ANN model.

Table 5
Selection of the input dataset for the ANN algorithm on the site location potential for urban energy supply plants.

Item Description Data source

Geographic/ Natural availability or constraints for energy supply facility National land cover map (1:25,000)
Weather Topography (altitude, inclination, and direction) DEM 30 m
information Accessibility (Road, demand area, water usability) National road network map
Land use map
National coast line map (1:25,000)
National river line map (1:25,000)
Legal Legal regulations (constraints) for the locations of energy-related urban Regulation governing the decision of the urban plan facility/structure
information plan facilities, such as distribution and supply facilities, gas supply and installation standard (Ordinance of Ministry of Land, Transport and
(related to facilities, and heat supply facilities Maritime Affairs No. 163)
land use) Land use map
Energy Energy demand integrated with land use and energy demand units for Land use map
information land use
Energy demand units for land use

Table 6
Format and scope of the input dataset for the ANN algorithm based on the E-GIS DB of the installed mesh of urban energy supply plants.

Item Type Scope

Altitude m 5–1855
Inclination h 0–90
Direction degree 0–360
Distance to road (the shortest distance) m 1–100,000
Ground coverage: downtown (1), farming area (2), forest area (3), grassland (4), bare land (5), marsh land (6), and water (7) – 1–7
Energy demand units for land usea [3] [27]
a
Unit heating load, unit hot water load, unit electricity load, unit electricity load for cooking, unit cooling load, unit fuel load for cooking.

from the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) for 252
points measured in the Automatic Weather System (AWS) and
Automatic Synoptic Observation System (ASOS)4 over 20 years.
The spatial resolution of the AWS and ASSOS network of Korea is
shown in Fig. 6. The nation-wide data of 252 AWS/ASSOS points is
distributed differently from region to region by population density
and urbanization. For example, 30 points are distributed in Seoul city
4
The quality of AWS data is managed first by checking the measuring instruments
periodically to serve real-time monitoring of local dangerous weather conditions and
producing meteorological database for disaster prevention and second by imple-
menting overall quality control with handling outliers and missing values from the
Korea Meteorological Administration.
for 600 km2, the capital city of Korea. The temporal resolution is,
over 24 h, 1 min-average air temperature for every hour, 10 min-
average wind velocity for every hour, instantaneous (1 s) wind direc-
tion with maximum wind speed among 86,400 measured values, and
1 h cumulative precipitation. The air temperature used in this study
was calculated as monthly average for the data collection period
from monthly average for a year followed by the 1 min-average mea-
sured from AWS at every 3 h on time (8 times a day) during 3:00–
24:00 KST (Korean standard time), same as the officially released
statistics by Korea Meteorological Administration.
3.3.3.2. ANN modeling. The characteristics of the input dataset, such
as the topography, land cover, accessibility, and water usability,
110 I.-A. Yeo, J.-J. Yee / Applied Energy 119 (2014) 99–117
differed from the characteristics of the energy supply plants.
Therefore, the input dataset should be applied to algorithms that
are dependent on the classified energy supply plants. Hence, the
energy supply plants were classified into 10 types of plants (gen-
eral, small, and pumping-up hydraulic power; coal-fired, oil-fired,
and co-generation thermal power; solar power; wind power;
waste heat; and mixed combustion), and the potential of the urban
energy supply plants‘ availability was ranked from 1 to 10. For the
domestic energy supply plants’ classification in Table 7, the stan-
dard for evaluating the availability potential was the deciles of
the generating capacity applied by Eq. (1), as shown in Table 8.
In this case, class 1 represents the most suitable condition for the
site of the large-capacity energy supply plant, and class 10 repre-
sents the condition that is suitable for a small-capacity energy
plant or is not appropriate for a plant site.
kN
 F i1
10
Dk ¼ Li þ  ai
fi
where Dk is the kth decile; Li The lower limit of the decile class; k
the 1, 2, . . . , 9, 10; N the Sum of the absolute frequency; fi the Abso-
lute frequency of the decile class; Fi1 the Cumulative frequency
immediately below the decile class and ai the Width of the class
containing the decile class.
Fig. 8 represents the concept of the input–output structure of
the proposed ANN algorithm. The prepared input and output data-
sets for constructing ANN models built in Evaluator deduced 10
types of ANNs (general, small, and pumping-up hydraulic power;
coal-fired, oil-fired, and co-generation thermal power; solar
power; wind power; waste heat; and mixed combustion) for the
potential of the urban energy supply plants’ availability, applied
by the Levenberg Marquardt (trainlm) algorithm5 using a Hessian
matrix6 and the scaled conjugate gradient (trainscg). The networks
were trained after applying random initial values to the weights
and biases until a reasonable performance was achieved. To verify
that the developed ANN model has inherent generalization ability,
the networks were validated by organizing training, validation, and
testing datasets, which were selected as 60%, 20%, and 20%, respec-
tively, of the 486 total pairs of input and target data meshes and
were randomly selected. Here, the training dataset adjusts the net-
works according to their errors by repeated learning. The validation
dataset measures network generalization and makes the network
stop learning when the generalization ceases to improve. The testing
dataset does not affect the training and independently measures the
network performance. As a result, the generalization ability showed
similar characteristics between the TSE and the VSE, with an R value
that was higher than 0.90. Table 9 details the structure of the devel-
oped ANN algorithm for the 10 types of energy supply plants.
To summarize, the process of finding the ANN algorithm for the
potential of urban energy supply plants‘ availability involves deriv-
ing the tendency between the input dataset of mesh information
located in the energy supply plant of the whole country integrated
in the E-GIS DB and target dataset of the plant capacity class’s ap-
plied mesh. When the input dataset, constructed as the E-GIS DB of
the planning city of the target study area, is applied to the ANN
algorithm, the 10 potential classes of the urban energy supply
plants’ availability for the applied region can be derived.
The ANN algorithm deduced in this study is based on the statis-
tics of the domestic energy supply plants over the whole country,
and the results applied by the ANN reflect the tendency of the site
location of the domestic energy supply plants. However, in reality,
5
Hessian matrix H = JTJ (where J is a Jacobian matrix that contains the first particle
of the network with weights and bias that can be calculated with a standard back-
propagation algorithm.)
6
Gradient g = JTe (where e is the network error). The algorithm uses the Newton
estimation of a Hessian Matrix, such as xk + 1 = xk  [JTJ + lI]  1JTe.
Table 7
Applied target dataset for the ANN algorithm of the site location potential for urban
energy supply plants.
a
Large-scale classification Small-scale classification Number of places
Hydraulic power General 34
Small 104
Pumping-up 12
Thermal power Coal-fired 28
Oil-fired 20
Co-generation – 42
Solar power – 108
Wind power – 28
Waste heat – 24
Mixed combustion – 86
a
The information on the installed urban energy supply plants that Korea Electric
Power Corporation (KEPCO) provided.
renewable energy resources such as wind and solar energy are af-
ð3Þ fected by regional conditions, which influence the capacity for the
renewable energy resources. In other words, renewable energy
supply plants should be located in an area that has a high potential
for acquiring natural energy by finding the availability of natural
resources and renewable energy based on the E-GIS DB to intro-
duce economically efficient renewable energy that satisfies the cli-
mate and topographic conditions. Additionally, when an energy
supply plant is planned, the renewable energy production poten-
tial of the plant’s region should also be examined. Therefore, in this
study, a solar and wind energy resource map was also constructed
based on AWS weather information. The ANN algorithms for the
solar and wind energy resources potential are shown in Table 10.
It shows input dataset including longitude, latitude, height, month,
average sunshine duration, and average temperature, target data-
set such as solar and wind from the collected AWS and ASSOS data,
the network structures and the network functions as a result of
training.
3.3.3.3. ANN optimization approach. In this study, the results of the
proposed non-linear modeling between environment and energy
planning variables and site location potentials of urban energy
supply plants developed in Section 3.3.3.2 were compared with
those of a linear model by Multi-Linear Regression (MLR) analysis.
The MLR function applied in this study is defined as follows: The
input and target dataset of the proposed ANN were also applied
as input and response variables of the MLR.
Y ¼ b0 þ b1 X 1 þ b2 X 2 þ . . . þ bn X n ð4Þ
where Y is the Dependent variable (response variable); b0, b1, . . . , bn
the Regression parameter coefficients and X1, X2, . . . , Xn the Inde-
pendent variables (input variables).
The result of the constructed MLR equations, for predicting the
technical potential of the classes of urban energy supply plants‘
availability, overestimated the linear relations of the altitude or
direction but underestimated other variables. This finding implies
that several input variables were removed by covariance diagnosis
to derive the linear relation between the input and response vari-
ables in the MLR. On the other hand, the proposed algorithm could
consider the non-linear effects of all of the input variables for the
response variables. In addition, the average R2 of the applied
ANN models was found to be 0.85, which is higher than that of
the MLR (which was 0.725), while the average MSE of the ANN
was found to be 0.578, which is lower than that of the MLR (which
was 2.681), implying that the proposed ANN in this study was
modeled to derive a more appropriate prediction result (Table 11).
An ANN can achieve high accuracy for a local model by utilizing
non-linear mappings, with which recent studies have conducted
optimizations of a global model by comparing or hybridizing other
non-linear models, such as GAs and the support vector regression
 I.-A. Yeo, J.-J. Yee / Applied Energy 119 (2014) 99–117 111

Table 8
Classification of the applied target dataset grade based on the capacities of the energy supply plant (KW).

Class (Decile) Hydraulic power Thermal power Co-generation Solar power Wind power Waste heat Mixed combustion
General Small Pumping-up Coal-fired Oil-fired
1 (D1–D2) 412,000 6000 1,000,000 4,000,000 1,800,000 511,800 452,409 98,000 9880 110,000
135,600 2960 820,000 3,380,000 1,400,000 96,190 1856 32,160 7600 9350
2 (D2–D3) 135,600 2960 820,000 3,380,000 1,400,000 96,190 1856 32,160 7600 9350
96,000 2326 680,000 2,760,000 650,000 76,140 1067 12,036 4984 3410
3 (D3–D4) 96,000 2326 680,000 2,760,000 650,000 76,140 1067 12,036 4984 3410
89,200 1952 620,000 2,140,000 528,600 60,980 1045 7170 3291 1885
4 (D4–D5) 89,200 1952 620,000 2,140,000 528,600 60,980 1045 7170 3291 1885
80,080 1417 600,000 1,296,000 500,000 50,448 1022 3500 2236 950
5 (D5–D6) 80,080 1417 600,000 1,296,000 500,000 50,448 1022 3500 2236 950
60,000 1200 586,667 800,000 400,000 42,900 1000 2750 1850 750
6 (D6–D7) 60,000 1200 586,667 800,000 400,000 42,900 1000 2750 1850 750
57,952 998 573,333 680,000 250,000 32,980 576 2264 1000 450
7 (D7–D8) 57,952 998 573,333 680,000 250,000 32,980 576 2264 1000 450
45,500 800 560,000 420,000 200,000 24,000 500 1540 977 380
8 (D8–D9) 45,500 800 560,000 420,000 200,000 24,000 500 1540 977 380
25,020 462 440,000 385,000 150,000 21,000 440 732 954 310
9 (D9–D10) 25,020 462 440,000 385,000 150,000 21,000 440 732 954 310
19,670 332 240,000 130,000 137,500 19,180 300 624 745 240
10 (D10–0) 19,670 332 240,000 130,000 137,500 19,180 300 624 745 240
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

ANN structure Site location

Analysis factors
potential

(Levenberg–Marquardt and Scaled Conjugate Gradient algorithms )

ANN analysis factor as Site location potential map

learning dataset
Input Data Target Data Potentiality
Mesh ID
Land Energy Dist. from Dist. from Power capacity class
Altitude Slope Direction Road
cover Demand Sea River Class
1 8
1 1 1 1 4 2 1 1 2

1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 2 2 8

1 2 1 2 1 1 1 1 5 3 8
1 3 1 1 3 2 1 1 3
4 8
1 3 1 3 2 1 1 2 5
Class
1 3 3 1 1 2 1 1 1 5 9 1
1 3 3 2 4 1 1 1 5 2
6 9
1 3 4 2 1 1 2 2 5
3
… … 4
1 3 4 2 2 1 1 1 5
5
1 3 4 3 2 4 1 3 2 2398 8 6
1 3 4 3 4 4 1 3 1 7
2399 8 8
2 1 2 2 1 2 2 1 3
9
2400 5
2 2 1 1 2 2 1 1 4 10

Fig. 8. Structure of the deduced ANN algorithm for the site location potential of the urban energy supply plants.

(SVR) method [90]. However, this study does not address the opti-
mized solutions of non-linear relations by hybrid AI systems. The
methodology that is approached in this study is not finding the
most optimal site itself for locating energy plants but instead sup-
porting optimal planning by providing the technical potentials for
classes of the urban energy supply plants‘ availability and natural
energy generation. For this reason, in practice, the final site selec-
tion is accomplished by reflecting the decision makers’ judgments
on landscape violations, land price affordability, and target policies
as well as the technical potential for energy supply plant locations.
Hence, future studies should conduct optimizations for global
modeling by comparing the proposed ANN and other non-linear
112 I.-A. Yeo, J.-J. Yee / Applied Energy 119 (2014) 99–117

Table 9
Trained ANN structure for the site location potential of urban energy supply plants.

Energy plant type Training function Network structure (Hidden layer  Output layer)
Hydraulic power General trainlm 31
Small trainscg 31
Pumping-up trainlm 21
Thermal power Coal-fired trainlm 21
Oil-fired trainscg 31
Co-generation – trainlm 31
Solar power – trainscg 31
Wind power – trainscg 41
Waste heat – trainlm 41
Mixed combustion – trainscg 21

Table 10
Trained ANN structure for the site location potential of renewable energy availability.

Classification Layer
Inputa Hidden Targeta
0 0
Solar power Latitude (° ), longitude (° ), altitude (m), month (–), average sunshine duration (hrs), and average temp (°C) Single Solar radiation (MJ)
Wind power Latitude (° 0 ), longitude (° 0 ), altitude (m), month (–), monthly average wind speed (m/s) Single Wind speed (m/s)
a
Altitude, temperature, and wind speed were displayed with the measured value of the Automatic Weather Station up to one decimal place.

by providing an objective standard of technical potential as

Table 11 planning supportive materials before the intervention of decision
Comparison of the prediction performance between the developed ANN models and
the conventional MLR models.
makers’ subjective opinions.

Statistical values Proposed ANN Conventional MLR

4. Applicability of the site location potential model for urban
Average R2 0.850 0.725
Average MSE 0.578 2.681 energy supply plants and renewable energy availability

4.1. Outline of the research subject area

modeling methods by surveying synthetic knowledge and experi-
ence from decision makers that affect the realization of the site
location planning.
3.4. Model implementation and proposed application of obtained
results
Through the processes described in Sections 3.2 and 3.3, the ur-
ban energy planning information, which can give feedback on the
site selection of urban energy supply plants and the allocation of
the urban power supply capacity, was obtained by implementing
the proposed model applied to the E-GIS DB with the ANN. When
an urban energy scenario is selected by policy makers, a more suit-
able energy supply plant can be planned based on the site location
potential algorithm for each energy supply plant and the renewable
energy availability found in this study. Based on the potential map
of the urban energy supply plants‘ availability, the types of environ-
mentally friendly urban energy supply plants that are latent in the
applied region can be examined, and the plant capacities and the
locations that have high feasibility can be simultaneously estimated
according to the distribution of the availability potential. In the case
of renewable energy that is affected by a regional climatic condi-
tion, more scrupulous urban energy supply planning is needed in
the urban planning stage if we are to consider the potential of the
urban energy supply plants’ availability, as calculated by existing
statistics with the potential of the renewable energy availability
in the region.
In practice, policy target, social opinion, and economical afford-
ability such as landscape protection, the Not In My Back Yard
(NIMBY) or Please In My Front Yard (PIMFY) phenomena, and land
prices also act as crucial or decisive factors for siting and installing
energy systems in a large variety of situations. In this context, this
study leaves further decision-making processes to planning agents
For this study, the Gwang-myung/Si-heung public housing dis-
trict was selected as the subject area from the domestic cities of
Gyunggi-do in the Republic of Korea in which urban planning is
currently in progress. The district area is 17.4 km2 for Gwang-
myung and Si-heung and is a low density, middle stratum, resi-
dence-planned district, as shown in Fig. 9. This district includes
64,620 public houses and 30,717 private houses that can accom-
modate a population of 276,000. A district unit plan was estab-
lished in December of 2010, and the current urban planning
status includes drawings for the density of each building facility,
location, and scale of natural land use, such as green areas and
water. The research subject area where the system was applied in-
cludes a rectangular range of 8 km  12 km, which consists of the
project area in the planning stage and the surrounding existing
cities.
4.2. Result of the site location potential for the urban energy supply
plants and the renewable energy availability of the research subject
area
In Section 4.2, the recommended urban energy supply plants
and renewable energy availability for the research subject area
was examined by applying the site location potential model. As
shown in Fig. 10, the site location potential map for the urban en-
ergy supply plants was found by applying the ANN algorithm in
Section 3 and the input dataset of the applied region by construct-
ing the E-GIS DB, including the urban planning information in the
district unit plan, topography (altitude, inclination, and direction),
land cover classification, accessibility (road and built up area),
water usability, and energy consumption area. The urban energy
supply systems that were considered to be appropriate for the
research area were mixed combustion, general hydraulic power,
 I.-A. Yeo, J.-J. Yee / Applied Energy 119 (2014) 99–117 113

Building
of
existing
Gyunggi-do, city
Republic of Central commerce
Korea 8km district

Low density
apartment district
12km
Low density
apartment district

Public housing
district of Gwang-
myung· Si-heung

(a) Geographical location (b) Case study area (c) Subject area development plan
Fig. 9. Outline of the urban development plan for the research area of interest.

Class Class Class Class Class

1 1 1 1 1
2 2 2 2 2
3 3 3 3 3
4 4 4 4 4
5 5 5 5 5
6 6 6 6 6
7 7 7 7 7
8 8 8 8 8
9 9 9 9 9
10 10 10 10 10
General hydraulic power Pumping up hydraulic power Small hydraulic power Coal fired thermal power Oil fired thermal power

Class Class Class Class Class

1 1 1 1 1
2 2 2 2 2
3 3 3 3 3
4 4 4 4 4
5 5 5 5 5
6 6 6 6 6
7 7 7 7 7
8 8 8 8 8
9 9 9 9 9
10 10 10 10 10
Solar power Wind power Co-generation Mixed combustion Waste heat

Fig. 10. The site location potential map for the urban energy supply plants of the research area of interest.

oil-fired thermal power, and solar power. The research area of
interest is suitable for hydraulic power generation because of the
high water level caused by the surrounding mountainous environ-
ment and is appropriate for solar power generation mainly in the
surrounding mountain area. Wind power generation was consid-
ered to be inappropriate for most of the region because the annual
mean wind speed is approximately 1 m/s.
The solar and wind resource potential map created by applying
the ANN algorithm in Section 3 with the input dataset of the AWS
weather information on the research area is shown in Fig. 11. The
wind speed was 1.7 m/s in the winter and was the minimum value
for the year. The mean wind speed was 2.0 m/s from Mar. to Oct.
and 3.4 m/s in Aug. in the area of interest. The western part of
the research area had a higher wind speed than the other parts.
An area is discerned to be appropriate for wind power generation
if the yearly mean wind speed is over 5.0 m/s, the wind flow in
the main direction occurs frequently, and there is little variation
in the wind direction for the use of wind power resources. The rec-
ommended candidate location should have a yearly mean wind
speed of over 4 m/s for a large-scale wind farm and over 2.0–
2.5 m/s for building units.
The capacity of domestic wind turbines varies from 0.4 kW to
750 kW. Tables 12 and 13 show the specifications for horizontal-
axis wind turbines and vertical-axis wind turbines, respectively,
for present domestic technologies. According to the wind speed
in Fig. 11, the 750-kW rated power of a horizontal-axis wind
114 I.-A. Yeo, J.-J. Yee / Applied Energy 119 (2014) 99–117

Wind Wind Wind Wind Wind Wind

speed speed speed speed speed speed
[m/s] [m/s] [m/s] [m/s] [m/s] [m/s]

Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May June

Wind Wind Wind Wind Wind Wind

speed speed speed speed speed speed
[m/s] [m/s] [m/s] [m/s] [m/s] [m/s]

July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec.

(a) Wind resource potential

Solar Solar Solar Solar Solar Solar

radiat. radiat. radiat. radiat. radiat. radiat.
[MJ/ ] [MJ/ ] [MJ/ ] [MJ/ ] [MJ/ ] [MJ/ ]

Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May June

Solar Solar Solar Solar Solar Solar
radiat. radiat. radiat. radiat. radiat. radiat.
[MJ/ ] [MJ/ ] [MJ/ ] [MJ/ ] [MJ/ ] [MJ/ ]

July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec.

(b) Solar resource potential
Fig. 11. Renewable energy resources potential map of the research area of interest.

Table 12
Technical specifications for domestic horizontal-axis wind turbines.

Horizontal-axis wind turbine 35 kW 65 kW 100 kW 225 kW 750 kW

Blade diameter (m) 10.2 16.5 21.8 29.0 47.0
Tower height (m) 24.4 22.9 23.8 40.0 65.0
Blade weight (kg) 102 360 770 4818 6600
Turbine weight (kg) 1565 4218 7121 11,754 36,600
Rated power (kW) 35 65 100 225 750
Cut-in wind speed (m/s) 3.6 4.9 4.9 4.0 3.0–4.0
Rated wind speed (m/s) 9.8 10.2 12.7 12.0 15.0
Cut-out wind speed (m/s) 54 54 54 25 25
Fail-secure device Blade adjustment Blade adjustment – hydraulic brake

Table 13
Technical specifications for domestic vertical-axis wind turbines.

Vertical-axis wind turbine 3 kW 5 kW 10 kW 30 kW 50 kW

Rotor diameter (m) 1.5 2.5 3.0 4.9 7.3
Turbine size (m) 2.3  3.0 3.3  4.3 4.0  6.0 5.9  9.8 8.3  15.9
Rotor weight (kg) 95 123 186 332 720
Generator weight (kg) 55 77 114 678 754
Turbine weight (kg) 150 200 300 1,010 1,474
Rated power (kW) 3 5 10 30 50
Peak power (kW) 4 6 13.8 36 72
Start-up wind speed (m/s) 0.5
Cut-in wind speed (m/s) 1.8
Rated wind speed (m/s) 9
Cut-out wind speed (m/s) 53.6
Noise (dB) 620
 I.-A. Yeo, J.-J. Yee / Applied Energy 119 (2014) 99–117 115

Table 14
Technical potential of wind electric power generation for the research area of interest.

Wind turbine type Blade/rotor diameter (m) Wind speed (m/s) Monthly generation potentiala (kW/monthmesh)
HAWT 750 kW 47.0 Min.: 1.7 (Jan.) 29.31
VAWT b 3 kW 1.5  3.0 Avg.: 2.0 (May) 0.07
10 kW 3.0  6.0 Max.: 3.3 (Aug.) 0.05
50 kW 7.3  15.9 2.23
a
Applied by the max. wind speed.
b
Wind power of VAWT is considered to have 50% of the efficiency of HAWT.

Table 15
Technical potential of PV electric power generation for the research area of interest.

PV technology Efficiency g The potentially utilizable surface area CA Mean monthly solar radiation SRm Monthly Generation potentiala GPm
(%) (m2/mesh) (MJ/m2/month) (MJ/monthmesh)
Bulk Mono 14–20 Min.: 400 4.490–6.490 285,856–413,186
crystalline
Poly 13–15 Avg.: 3,745 235,411–340,271
crystalline
a-Si 6–9 Max.: 37,875 126,113–182,288
Thin film CdTe 9–11 168,151–243,051
CIS/CIGS 10–12 184,966–267,356
a
Applied by the average value of each g and CA.

turbine is acceptable in an area in which there is a maximum wind
speed, such as the western part of the research area, and a vertical-
axis wind turbine is suitable in areas that have a mean wind speed
of 2 m/s. Table 14 shows the results of the wind electric power
generation based on the wind resources map in Fig. 11 and the
domestic wind turbine technological level applied by Eq. (2) and
is based on existing research that calculated the power output
from wind turbines [91]. The result indicates that technical wind
power generation by horizontal-axis wind turbines is unattainable
even in areas that have the maximum wind speed, and a wind
turbine that has at least a 10-kW rated vertical-axis should be
installed in the research area of interest.
 
Prated
P ¼ Prated  CF ¼ Prated  0:087V  2
D
where P is the Power output from a single turbine (kW); Prated the
Rated power of the turbine (kW); CF the Capacity factor; V the
Monthly averaged wind speed (m/s) and D the Turbine diameter
(m).
To make solar resources such as solar power generation or
building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) profitable, they must be in-
stalled in an area that has a high intensity of daylight and long day-
light hours. The recommended size of a PV panel is at least 30 m2
(6 kW rated level) for an environment in which the minimum wind
speed is over approximately 0.5 m/s and the humidity is below
80%.
According to Fig. 11, the monthly solar radiation of the research
area varied from a minimum of 4.490 MJ/m2 to a maximum of
6.490 MJ/m2, and the building footprint area in the mesh ranges
from a minimum of 400 to a maximum of 37,875 m2, with a mean
value of 3745 m2 as a result of examining the E-GIS DB of the ap-
plied area to consider the installable surface area of the building
roof. Table 15 shows the result of the monthly mean PV electric
power generation in a mesh that is based on the present domestic
PV technology, as applied by Eq. (3), and that is based on existing
research that calculated the yearly electric power output from PV
[8], which is shown in Table 15. As a result of applying the mean
value of the efficiency g (%) of each PV technology and the poten-
tially utilizable building roof area (m2/mesh), the maximum elec-
tric power generation potential was 413,186 MJ/monthmesh
with mono crystalline bulk PV.
GPm ¼ SRm  CA  AF  g ð6Þ
where GPm is the Electric power generation potential per month
(MJ/monthmesh); SRm the Monthly solar radiation received per
unit horizontal area (MJ/m2/month); CA the Calculated total poten-
tial area of installment (m2/mesh); AF the The area factor that indi-
cates what fraction of the calculated areas can be covered by solar
panels (70% in the case study area) and g the efficiency with which
the solar system converts sunlight into electricity (%).
In terms of the technical energy potential, the availability of a
site location for an urban energy supply plant and wind/solar en-
ergy was examined in an environmentally friendly city using the
results of this study. A site location potential model for urban en-
ergy supply plants and renewable energy availability was exam-
ð5Þ ined separately, but the integrated optimal site location should
be found by overlay analysis in the future. Therefore, future studies
should specify the methodology for finding the optimal site loca-
tion potential classes when integrated with the technical potential
for renewable energy.
5. Conclusions
This study suggested a site location potential model for urban
energy supply plants and renewable energy availability based on
the increasing necessity of urban planning that creates an ‘energy
saving environmentally friendly city’ in urban energy supply plan-
ning in terms of ‘sustainable development’. The applicability of this
model was examined by applying it for a planned city in the
Republic of Korea, where urban planning is in progress. The results
from this study are described as follows.
(1) Section 2 examined existing research trends in terms of the
technical energy potential and site location planning
support systems and showed the need to reinforce the
energy supply plan in environmentally friendly urban
energy planning based on an appropriate combination of
energy systems. An integrated system is insufficient for the
optimal site location of urban energy supply systems.
(2) Section 3 integrated the E-GIS DB, which contains the
geographic and climatic conditions of the area and energy-
related information to manage the integrated factors that
affect the site location of the energy supply plants. For the
116 I.-A. Yeo, J.-J. Yee / Applied Energy 119 (2014) 99–117
neural network analysis, the input dataset included the
topography, land cover classification, accessibility, water
usability, and energy demand, and the target dataset
included the system capacity of domestically installed
energy supply plants, which was classified into 10 decile
classes. A site location potential model of the ANN for the
urban energy supply plants and renewable energy availabil-
ity was found using the Levenberg–Marquardt (trainlm) and
scaled conjugate gradient (trainscg) algorithms, such as the
potentiality class map for 10 types of energy supply systems
and the renewable energy resources map.
(3) Section 4 examined the applicability of the proposed meth-
odology based on the environmentally friendly energy sup-
ply planning process and technology proposed in Sections
2 and 3 in the Gwang-myung/Si-heung public housing dis-
trict. The E-GIS DB was constructed based on the district unit
plan map of the research area. A neural network algorithm of
the site location potential model, maps for urban energy
supply plants, and the renewable energy availability were
found. As a result of the case study, the most appropriate
urban energy supply systems for the research area were con-
sidered to be general hydraulic power and solar power
because of the high water level, surrounding mountainous
environment, and profitable location for solar resources in
Korea, while wind power generation was found to be the
least suitable because of the low wind speed throughout
the year. In terms of the wind energy potential, technical
wind power generation by horizontal-axis wind turbines is
unattainable even in areas that have the maximum wind
speed, and a 10 kW rated vertical-axis wind turbine should
be installed in the research area of interest. In terms of the
solar energy potential, the maximum electric power genera-
tion potential was 413,186 MJ/monthmesh applied by
mono crystalline bulk PV.
In this study, future improvements of the site location potential
model for urban energy supply plants and renewable energy avail-
ability can be summarized as follows. First, the scope of this study
is limited by the technical potential of the site location. In the fu-
ture, in addition to the technical potential, studies should focus
on optimal site selection and allocating urban energy systems.
For the optimized installation, the energy supply plants should
be examined with various combinations including the types and
number of energy supply plants and capacity allocation by a sim-
ulation method such as least distance method based on the pro-
posed candidate locations from this study. Second, other effective
factors such as the economy and policy should not be overlooked
because they significantly affect the distribution of urban energy
supply plants in the real world. In the future, studies on the ‘eco-
nomic potential’ and the ‘market potential’, along with the techni-
cal potential examined in this study, should be conducted by
accounting for economic factors such as the fuel cost, technology
cost, investment for energy supply facility, and market price in
the E-GIS DB. Third, in this study, a site location potential model
for urban energy supply plants and renewable energy availability
was examined separately, but the integrated optimal site location
should be found by overlay analysis in the future. Therefore, the
method for finding the optimal site location classes should be spec-
ified by integrating the technical potential of the renewable energy
resources.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Research Foundation
of Korea [NRF] grant funded by the Korea government [MEST] [No.
2011-0028295].
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