Abstract
This article presents the field test of the developed demand response system installed in the central heating systems of existing apartment buildings. The buildings are occupied by students and located in Tampere, Finland, which is within the northern climate zone. The studied buildings are connected to the local district heating network. The presented demand response system takes into account weather forecasts, indoor temperatures and decreases in space heating temperatures when demand for domestic hot water is the highest. The owner of the buildings benefits from peak demand control and can save in fixed fees. If enough buildings would have this kind of demand response control system, there would be a decreased need for utility companies to use peak power plants that typically use fossil fuels for heat production. In this field test, the peak load decrease was 14%–15% on average. During the test, the heating period of February and March, the normalized energy consumption of eight buildings was reduced by 11%, which represents a 9% annual cut in energy, costs and greenhouse gas emissions. Demand Response (DR) heating aims to help in reaching the objectives of the National Energy and Climate Strategy for 2030.
Highlights
The EUs climate and energy framework for 2030 targets at least 40% cuts in greenhouse gas emissions from the 1990 level [1]
This study demonstrates the potential of Demand Response (DR) and its feasibility in apartment buildings connected to District Heating (DH) by using saved energy, emission cuts, peak load control, and saved energy costs as indicators
This study investigated the potential of the prioritization of Domestic Hot Water (DHW) demand at the expense of the heating in apartment buildings connected to DH through three sub-objectives
Summary
The EUs climate and energy framework for 2030 targets at least 40% cuts in greenhouse gas emissions from the 1990 level [1]. The amendment [4] emphasizes smart automation and the interaction between buildings and the energy system. One form of this interaction is a Demand Response (DR). Applications of electrical energy-related DR have been carried out in research and in practice for a long time and several studies have focused on DR in buildings with electric space heating [7,8,9,10]. Their study [7] noted that the benefits of DR for consumers are direct monetary benefits and improved reliability of the power system, avoidance of price peaks, improved economic efficiency of the electrical energy system, etc
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