Demand Response Technology Readiness Levels for Energy Management in Blocks of Buildings

Abstract

Fossil fuels deliver most of the flexibility in contemporary electricity systems. The pressing need to reduce CO 2 emissions requires new methods to provide this flexibility. Demand response (DR) offers consumers a significant role in the delivery of flexibility by reducing or shifting their electricity usage during periods of stress or constraint. Blocks of buildings offer more flexibility in the timing and use of energy than single buildings, however, and a lack of relevant scalable ICT tools hampers DR in blocks of buildings. To ameliorate this problem, a current innovation project called "Demand Response in Blocks of Buildings" (DR-BoB: www.dr-bob.eu) has integrated existing technologies into a scalable cloud-based solution for DR in blocks of buildings. The degree to which the DR-BoB energy management solution can increase the ability of any given site to participate in DR is dependent upon its current energy systems, i.e., the energy metering, the telemetry and control technologies in building management systems, and the existence/capacity of local power generation and storage plants. To encourage the owners and managers of blocks of buildings to participate in DR, a method of assessing and validating the technological readiness to participate in DR energy management solutions at any given site is required. This paper describes the DR-BoB energy management solution and outlines what we have called the demand response technology readiness levels (DRTRLs) for the implementation of such a solution in blocks of buildings.

Innovative User Experience Design and Customer Engagement Approaches for Residential Demand Response Programs

“…The software Gretl has been used to run a multinomial logit model and provide coefficients for the WTP calculation. These coefficients are then employed in the equation (1) defining the WTP as "minus the ratio between the estimate of the coefficient for the attribute of interest and the tax coefficient" [12,13]. The resulting WTP values represent the additional (positive or negative) amount of money the customers are willing to pay for having one specific feature in the service, with respect to a base level.…”

“…According to the urgent need to decarbonize our economy, new solutions have to be found in order to provide the required flexibility [1] for integrating intermittent renewable power sources, such as solar and wind. Among the new sources of flexibility, Demand Response (DR) is becoming a cost-effective solution, pushed by electrification of transport and heating/cooling sectors and new supporting technologies.…”

Identification of Value Proposition and Development of Innovative Business Models for Demand Response Products and Services Enabled by the DR-BOB Solution

“…CAPEX will also include the additional costs for improving the monitoring and control capabilities of the buildings and enabling an effective deployment of the DR-BOB solution. To this aim, the project provided for the development of a dedicated methodology for assessing the DR Technology Readiness Level (DRTRL) of a building [18]. All pilots were assessed and categorized based on this methodology, which also gave an indication of the required additional metering and control equipment to be installed to achieve the appropriate readiness level.…”

Integrating Energy Efficiency into the Municipal Procurement Process of Buildings—Whose Responsibility?

“…Self-produced renewable heating and electric energy reduce the purchase demand for more expensive grid energy [27,56]. The surplus of the self-produced heat and electricity can be sold into the local grid by using appropriate real-time metering and bi-directional connection, or it can be stored for future own use [57][58][59][60][61].…”

“…IoT solutions allow the control of devices' energy use based on real time online energy price data. The smart demand-side management technologies improve the flexibility of the building's energy use by shifting energy use to off-peak periods when electricity spot prices are lower [27,61,63]. Furthermore, reducing peak power demand mitigates economic risks related to increasing peak power fees [27].…”