Electricity demand flexibility potential of optimal building retrofit solutions

Emmanouil Thrampoulidis,Gabriela Hug,Kristina Orehounig

doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2042/1/012149

Abstract

Swiss buildings, the majority of which will last beyond 2050, are responsible for a large share of energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions. Hence, building retrofit is considered as one of the most promising approaches to reduce those shares. However, reducing the energy load should not be an end in itself. The continuous integration of intermittent power sources in the electricity grid imposes new challenges to the supply-demand problem that might directly affect the retrofit process and vice-versa. Therefore, this paper aims to develop a model to analyze the demand flexibility potential of optimal retrofit solutions. Co-simulation and a rolling horizon approach are used to derive upper and lower electricity consumption profiles given some temperature comfort bands. Within those electricity bands, the feasible area provides insights on the extent by which the electricity consumption can be shifted within the comfort constraints. The method is applied to a building archetype. Results show that when the comfort constraints are relaxed the feasible area increases, e.g., up to five times for the case of enhancing the roof insulation, while building retrofit influences the electricity bands. Such a method could enhance the retrofit process and address both the emissions’ and the supply-demand balancing problem.

Highlights

The Swiss Federal Office of the Environment recently announced that Switzerland missed the emissions targets for 2020
Our work aims to provide a methodology on analyzing the demand flexibility potential of residential buildings given a set of feasible and optimal building retrofit solutions
In this work, a model to analyze the potential for demand flexibility of residential buildings is provided for electricity-based optimal retrofit solutions

Summary

Introduction

The Swiss Federal Office of the Environment recently announced that Switzerland missed the emissions targets for 2020. The decarbonization of the country by 2050 is still the declared target. Two of the main pillars of the Swiss Energy Strategy are increasing the energy efficiency of buildings and facilitating the integration of renewable energy technologies [1]. In Switzerland, buildings account for 24% of total GHG emissions [3] and 40% of total energy consumption [4]. Part of this energy is electricity and buildings can play a key role in the supplydemand balancing problem as the electricity grid is facing great challenges due to the increased integration of renewable energy technologies [5]. Buildings’ energy load could be reduced with building retrofit and exploited for energy demand management

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