Abstract
The increasing share of renewable energy sources in the power industry poses challenges for grid management due to the stochastic nature of their production. Besides the traditional supplyside regulation, grid flexibility can also be provided by the demand side. Demand-Response is an attractive approach based on adapting user demand profiles to match grid supply constraints. Nevertheless, defining the flexibility potential related to buildings is not straightforward and continues to pose challenges. Commonly accepted and standardized indicators for quantifying flexibility are still missing. The present paper proposes a new quantification methodology to assess the energy flexibility of a residential building. A set of comprehensive indicators capturing three key elements of building energy flexibility for demand response, notably, capacity, change in power consumption and cost of the demand response action have been identified. The proposed methodology is applied to a residential building, whose heating system is controlled by means of a model predictive control algorithm. The building model is developed on the basis of the experimental data collected in the framework of a European Commission supported H2020 research project Sim4Blocks, which deals with the implementation of demand response in building clusters. The optimal control problem has been investigated by means of mixed-integer linear programming approach. Real time prices are considered as external signals from the grid driving the DR actions. Results show that the proposed indicators, presented in the form of daily performance maps, allow to effectively assess the energy flexibility potential through its main dimensions and can be easily used either by an end-user or a grid-operator perspective to identify day by day the best DR action to be implemented.
Highlights
Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, increasing the penetration of renewable energy sources (RES) and improving energy efficiency are recognised as the three main targets of the Europe 2020 strategy [1]
Similar conclusions were presented by Péan et al [9] who carried out an exhaustive review on available control strategies for improving the flexibility potential related to the use of heat pumps in buildings
The most suitable applications and control strategies aimed at unlocking the flexibility potential, thermal energy storage system (TES) represent a further key element from a DR activation perspective
Summary
Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, increasing the penetration of renewable energy sources (RES) and improving energy efficiency are recognised as the three main targets of the Europe 2020 strategy [1]. To achieve these goals, a transition towards a new paradigm of the energy system, and in particular of the electricity grid, is required [2]. The so-called Demand Response refers to “changes in electric usage by end-use customers from their normal consumption patterns in response to changes in the price of electricity over time, or to incentive payments designed to induce lower electricity use at times of high wholesale market prices or when system reliability is jeopardized” [5]
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