Quantification and Characterization of Energy Flexibility in the Residential Building Sector (original) (raw)
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Analyzing energy flexibility by demand response in a Finnish district heated apartment building
E3S Web of Conferences, 2021
In order to realize the vision of climate neutrality, the proportion of renewable sources is increasing in the energy system. To accommodate the energy system, demand response (DR) has been established to make the building energy use flexible. This study aims to investigate the effect of DR actions on energy flexibility in a Finnish district heated apartment building. The rule-based control algorithm was applied for the DR control of space heating based on the Finnish dynamic hourly district heat price. This research was implemented with the validated dynamic building simulation tool IDA ICE. The obtained results show that price fluctuation impacts the DR control and further affects the amount of charging and discharging energies. February has the maximum hourly district heat price with the largest variation, which results in the maximum charging energy of 968 kWh during a single charging period being close to the heat storage capacity of a fully mixed 28 m3 water tank with ∆T of 30...
Representation of daily profiles of building energy flexibility
2018
The representation of simulation results with regards to building energy flexibility is investigated. The chosen case study is a residential flat located in Spain, equipped with an air-to-water heat pump. From a reference simulation scenario, active demand response (ADR) events are implemented; they consist in modulating the heating set-point for a few hours. If the starting time of the ADR event is varied in time, the resulting simulations enable to produce daily profiles quantifying the different aspects of energy flexibility. Different representations of these profiles are proposed and discussed, combining the flexibility capacity and efficiency profiles, or representing different ADR configurations in a single graph. A high dependency of the flexibility profiles was observed with regards to the existing consumption profile and temperature setbacks. An ADR event of 2 hours with set-point modulation of ±1°C provides a maximum flexibility capacity of 9.4kWh upwards and -8.6kWh down...
Aggregation of Energy Flexibility of Commercial Buildings
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Commercial buildings are increasingly utilised for providing demand side management due to their inherent thermal inertia and use of Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning systems. For a given demand response event, the question arises for the building manager or demand response controller on how to optimally provide flexibility, given different efficiencies and associated costs with each strategy. Current approaches often focus only on individual strategies as opposed to total available flexibility. This paper examines various demand response strategies simulated in a case study commercial building using an EnergyPlus model for the summer design day. Modified indicators are proposed for the available electrical energy flexibility and associated efficiency and daily profiles are created for the individual strategies. The total energy flexibility is calculated as a daily profile and the results show that the building was found to provide close to 1000 kWh energy flexibility at its...
Environmental and Economic Impact of Demand Response Strategies for Energy Flexible Buildings
2018
The present work develops research to exploit the energy flexibility of buildings through rule-based controls. A novel signal representing the marginal CO2 emissions of the electricity grid is created, and its calculation methodology detailed, so that it can be applied to other energy systems. This signal is used as an input by a rulebased controller acting on the indoor temperature setpoint of a residential building equipped with a heat pump. Through this set-point modulation, the energy use of the heat pump is displaced towards periods of lower CO2 intensity. A similar method is applied with an electricity price signal, and both strategies are compared in terms of energy, CO2 emissions and monetary costs. The two rulebased controls perform in a relatively similar way in the heating season (although with improvements of different amplitudes), while especially the price-based modulation produces adverse effects in the cooling season.
Design Optimization of Energy Flexibility for Residential Buildings
Proceedings of Building Simulation 2019: 16th Conference of IBPSA, 2020
Due to its progressive aging, the need to plan a long-term renovation strategy for the European building stock is increasingly urgent. Furthermore, the growing penetration of discontinuous and non-programmable renewable energy sources asks for an adaptable demand to the supply variability. Thus, the realization of new buildings which are both efficient and energy flexible can be a way to increase reliability and security of the current energy grid. Purpose of this work is to characterize the effect of different buildings renovation strategies on their energy flexibility performance obtained through electric heating energy demand management. The energy flexibility is quantified by means of a single indicator: the Flexibility Performance Indicator. As the Energy Performance Certificate, it is calculated with a standardized procedure. In this work, starting from a low energy performance reference building, the energy flexibility performance obtainable with different energy efficiency interventions is assessed. Eventually the extent of the requested investment combined with the potential electricity costs saving derived from it is evaluated.
Applied Energy, 2019
In the present energy scenario, buildings are playing more and more as energy prosumers. They can use and produce energy and also actively manage their energy demand. The energy flexibility quantifies their potential to adjust the energy demand on the basis of external requests. The objective of this paper is to propose a method for buildings energy flexibility labelling at design conditions in the same fashion as the energy performance label. The flexibility quantification is based on the calculation of four flexibility parameters, which contribute to the definition of the Flexibility Performance Indicator. In order to assess the Flexibility Performance Indicator, buildings dynamic simulations are necessary and the boundary conditions (i.e. demand response event, representative day, comfort constraints) to be considered during the evaluation are provided as part of the proposed methodology. The method was applied to different Italian buildings, which differ for geographic location and design specifications and, in particular, the effects of building structure, heating/cooling systems and energy storage systems were compared. Results show that the climatic conditions affect the flexibility performance, while the building feature more relevant is the thermal mass of the building envelope, more than that provided by the distribution system. A sensitivity analysis to evaluate how the results are influenced by the proposed boundary conditions was also performed. Their choice confirms to have a relevant impact on flexibility quantification, then their unique definition has a paramount importance within this methodology.
Applied Energy, 2018
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Energies
The electricity sector foresees a significant change in the way energy is generated and distributed in the coming years. With the increasing penetration of renewable energy sources, smart algorithms can determine the difference about how and when energy is produced or consumed by residential districts. However, managing and implementing energy demand response, in particular energy flexibility activations, in real case studies still presents issues to be solved. This study, within the framework of the European project “SABINA H2020”, addresses the development of a multi-level optimization algorithm that has been tested in a semi-virtual real-time configuration. Results from a two-day test show the potential of building’s flexibility and highlight its complexity. Results show how the first level algorithm goal to reduce the energy injected to the grid is accomplished as well as the energy consumption shift from nighttime to daytime hours. As conclusion, the study demonstrates the feas...
Energy Flexibility of Commercial Buildings for Demand Response Applications in Australia
Demand response (DR) is widely recognized as an important mechanism in the Australian electricity market, though large-scale uptake in commercial buildings is yet to occur, in part due to the difficulty of characterising the resource. This paper describes a bottom-up physics-based approach to characterise the DR potential of three types of commercial buildings (schools, offices, and data centres) under a global set-point temperature offset strategy. Representative models are calibrated with energy meter data and parametric analysis is used to assess sensitivity to different building, operating and system parameters. Parametric equations are provided for relative DR potentials as functions of temperature and time of day. School buildings were found to have the highest relative DR potential (~40-45%) for ambient temperatures over 30 • C, followed by data centres (~20-30%) and offices (~20%). Location has the strongest relative influence for school and office buildings and equipment energy intensity for data centres. The Australia-wide combined DR potential for school, office and data centres is estimated to be between 551 and 647 MW. Office buildings have the highest aggregate potential at between 1.5 and 1.7 times that of school buildings and between 9 and 11 times that of data centres.