Like other islands, Malta experiences great challenges to secure its energy supply and independence. Deep renovation of buildings to nearly zero energy and addressing “smart-readiness” are widely believed to contribute to solving such challenges, while meeting the exigencies of the 2018 European Union energy performance of buildings directive (EPBD). Nearly zero energy buildings benchmarks for residential buildings in Malta have been defined using established EPBD cost-optimal methodologies, however these guidelines detailing a one-step and one benchmark definition approach neglects peak loads, building-grid interaction requirements and energy storage. To counteract these inadequacies, this research proposes an innovative multi-criteria approach adapted from ISO 52000-1:2017 standard, which supports the new EPBD requirements for optimizing comfort and addressing energy poverty. This is carried out by first optimizing adaptive comfort in “free-running mode,” before switching to mechanical space heating and cooling. When implementing this approach on a case study of an existing 40-family social housing block undergoing deep renovation, it was found that the discomfort hours have been reduced drastically, while the peak demand for the remaining discomfort hours requiring mechanical heating and cooling has been halved. Despite such positive impact of passive measures, the research has quantitatively demonstrated that given Malta’s temperate climate, such measures have lower impact on the energy rating of the building, when compared to that achieved with active and renewable energy (RE) measures. Thus, the proposed multi-tier benchmarking approach ensures that each energy efficiency measure is appropriately weighted on its own merits, rather than lumping all measures under a single benchmark indicator. With regards to smartness indicators for load matching and grid interaction, a detailed analysis using system advisor model software demonstrated that battery energy storage systems have the capacity to match the RE supply to the demand, although this approach is still far away from being cost-optimal. The research concluded that RE incentives should therefore move away from feed-in tariffs and subsidize direct energy use, storage, and load matching given their high costs. Furthermore, the cost-optimal analysis should also quantify the costs of thermal discomfort, energy poverty and grid mismatch, to ensure a holistic approach to deep renovation of buildings.

与其他岛屿一样，马耳他在确保其能源供应和独立性方面也面临巨大挑战。对建筑物进行深度改造，以实现几乎零能耗，并解决“聪明的准备人们普遍认为”有助于解决此类挑战，同时满足2018年欧盟建筑物能源性能指令（EPBD）的要求。使用既定的EPBD成本最优方法已为马耳他的住宅建筑定义了几乎零能耗的建筑基准，但是这些准则仅详细说明了一个步骤，而一种基准定义方法则忽略了峰值负荷，建筑与电网相互作用的要求以及储能。为了弥补这些不足，本研究提出了一种创新的多标准方法，该方法采用了ISO 52000-1：2017标准，该方法支持优化舒适度和解决能源贫困的新EPBD要求。首先，通过优化“自由运行模式”，然后切换到机械空间加热和冷却。在对一个正在进行深层装修的现有40个家庭的社会住房进行案例研究时采用这种方法时，发现不舒适时间已大大减少，而其余需要机械加热和冷却的不舒适时间的高峰需求减少了一半。尽管被动措施具有积极影响，但研究定量地表明，鉴于马耳他的气候温和，与主动和可再生能源（RE）措施相比，此类措施对建筑物的能源评级影响较小。因此，拟议的多层基准测试方法可确保每个能效措施都根据自身的优点进行适当加权，而不是将所有措施归为一个基准指标。关于用于负载匹配和电网交互的智能指标，使用系统顾问模型软件进行的详细分析表明，电池储能系统具有将可再生能源供应与需求相匹配的能力，尽管这种方法仍远未达到成本最优的水平。 。研究得出结论，因此，可再生能源激励措施应摆脱上网电价补贴，并考虑到其高成本，直接补贴能源的使用，存储和负荷匹配。此外，成本优化分析还应量化热不适，能源贫困和电网不匹配的成本，以确保采用整体方法对建筑物进行深度改造。使用系统顾问模型软件进行的详细分析表明，电池储能系统具有使可再生能源供应与需求相匹配的能力，尽管这种方法仍远未达到成本最优的目的。研究得出结论，因此，可再生能源激励措施应摆脱上网电价补贴，并考虑到其高成本，直接补贴能源的使用，存储和负荷匹配。此外，成本优化分析还应量化热不适，能源贫困和电网不匹配的成本，以确保采用整体方法对建筑物进行深度改造。使用系统顾问模型软件进行的详细分析表明，电池储能系统具有使可再生能源供应与需求相匹配的能力，尽管这种方法仍远未达到成本最优的目的。研究得出结论，因此，可再生能源激励措施应摆脱上网电价补贴，并考虑到其高成本，直接补贴能源的使用，存储和负荷匹配。此外，成本优化分析还应量化热不适，能源贫困和电网不匹配的成本，以确保采用整体方法对建筑物进行深度改造。和负载匹配，因为它们的成本很高。此外，成本优化分析还应量化热不适，能源贫困和电网不匹配的成本，以确保采用整体方法对建筑物进行深度改造。和负载匹配，因为它们的成本很高。此外，成本优化分析还应量化热不适，能源贫困和电网不匹配的成本，以确保采用整体方法对建筑物进行深度改造。