Residential building stock model for evaluating energy retrofit programs in Saudi Arabia

This paper describes the development of a residential building stock model for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia using an engineering bottom-up approach. The model is suitable for evaluating the impact of any energy efficiency or demand-side management program targeted for the residential building sector. The model accounts for the make-up and the characteristics of the existing Saudi housing stock using 54 prototypes representing KSA residential buildings including their type, vintage, and location. The model relies on a detailed building simulation tool to predict hourly energy consumption. The model predictions have been verified against actual reported data for energy consumption levels associated to main four Saudi regions. As an application of the building stock model, the benefits of a series of energy retrofit measures and programs are evaluated for both households and Saudi government. The analysis results clearly indicate that large-scale implementation of retrofit programs for existing KSA housing stock is cost-effective and has a wide range of economic, environmental, and social benefits. In particular, a full and targeted implementation of optimal retrofit programs can reduce the annual electricity consumption of the KSA residential sector by 50% in addition to similar decreases in carbon emissions and electricity generation capacities. The analysis results clearly indicate that for the retrofit program to be effective, the energy efficiency measures need to be tailored to the housing type, vintage, and location. Optimal sets of retrofit measures have been identified for the various categories of KSA housing stock as part of the based analysis carried out in this study. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.