Demand-Side Energy Flexibility Management of Office Buildings

Abstract

Applying decentralized renewable energy in the built environment is a good approach to reduce the CO₂ emissions. However this is not without restrictions towards the stability of the energy grid. Using the flexibility within energy generation, distribution infrastructure, renewable energy sources and the built environment is the ultimate sustainable strategy within the built environment. However, at the moment this flexibility on building level is still to be defined. The IEA Annex 67 defines this specific flexibility. Our research is aimed at developing, implementing and evaluating process new control strategies for improving the energy interaction within the building, its environment and the energy infrastructure by effectively incorporating the occupants’ needs for health (ventilation) and comfort (heating/cooling). A bottom-up approach, starting from the user up to the smart grid, offers new possibilities for using buildings’ energy flexibility to stabilize the electrical grid. New intelligent process control concepts are necessary which make use of the dynamic possibilities offered by multi-agent systems in combination with building energy management systems. Increasing demand for electrical energy use in buildings and the corresponding carbon emissions has further emphasized the need for the implementation of strategies that improve the energy performance of buildings. Demand-side management (DSM) strategies, which aim to actively manage user behaviour and how appliances consume energy, is a rapidly growing concept with the potential to contribute worthwhile improvement in building energy performance. A coordinated distributed demand-side management strategy framework for cooling in combination with a battery electrical storage system is presented and implemented in an office building in order to test the concept. The results showed that DSM strategies can be applied while maintaining thermal comfort.