Investigation of design strategies and quantification of energy flexibility in buildings: A case-study in southern Italy

Abstract

The need for nearly (net) zero energy buildings in the current European landscape does not merely refer to energy balances: the aim to investigate the interaction between generation and load and find sources of technical-economic energy efficiency is marking the rise in interest throughout research and practice of energy flexibility solutions in buildings. In this regard, the study aims at enhancing the energy flexibility of a building in southern Italy through Rule-Based Control algorithms for the control of the space heating system and the charge and discharge of an electricity storage. The influence of electricity pricing and the thermal comfort conditions on flexibility is also investigated. The study is based on a validated thermal building model in non-steady state conditions developed in TRNSYS environment. New key performance indicators are proposed and tested to contribute to a clearer quantification of energy flexibility in the building design phase. The main results show the effectiveness of flexible control algorithms both from an economic and environmental perspective: operation costs are reduced by 10%, while CO2 emissions can be reduced by up to 79%. The study highlights the potential of energy flexibility approaches in the Mediterranean area, where lessons learned can be exported. The novel contribution of the study lies in the development of innovative energy flexibility key performance indicators as well as in the generation of site specific data for Mediterranean Europe.