BuildingControls · Efficient Grid Connected Buildings: A Distributed Control Framework for Managing Flexible Loads

Efficient Grid Connected Buildings: A Distributed Control Framework for Managing Flexible Loads

The renewable energy penetration targets set by EU and US necessitate a radical change in the way we operate the electric power grid. Increased penetration of the intermittent and uncertain renewable energy sources effectively implies that additional load and generation flexibility is required at multiple time-scales to ensure safe and stable operation of the electric grid. Since conventional generation is increasingly displaced by renewables, this additional flexibility can no longer be sourced solely from conventional plants. According to the International Energy Agency, buildings are responsible for about 40% of the global energy consumption, and about 50% of the energy used in a building is accounted for by the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system. Thus, improving operational efficiency of HVAC systems will results in large savings in the energy consumption. Moreover, buildings present a unique opportunity as flexible loads that can be controlled to provide ancillary services to the electric power grid, and thus enable high penetration of renewables. High thermal capacity of large commercial buildings allow real-time control of their HVAC systems to regulate electricity demand as required for grid stability, without effecting the quality of service in the building significantly. Motivated by the shift in power system characteristics described above, BuildingControls project aims to achieve the following scientific objectives: 1) Development of optimal thermostatic control algorithms for efficient energy use and peak load reduction in buildings 2) Development of a distributed control framework to coordinate multiple buildings as flexible energy resources for ancillary services: 3) Assessment of the performance of the distributed control framework from economic, environmental and sustainability perspectives Within the duration of the project, novel controls and optimization approaches and performance assessment methods are developed to address these objectives, and their viability are demonstrated in simulation and partially in real-life demo environments.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз