IEA EBC Annex 82 – Energy flexible buildings towards resilient low carbon energy systems

In many countries, the share of renewable energy sources (RES) is increasing in parallel with an extensive electrification of the energy demand. The electrification of the demand results from for example the replacement of traditional cars with electric vehicles (EVs) or the displacement of fos-sil fuel heating systems with energy efficient heat pumps. These changes, on both the demand and supply sides, impose new challenges to the management of energy systems.

A paradigm shift is, thus, required away from existing systems, where energy supply always follows demand, to a system where the demand side considers available supply. This is also true for the building sector and neihbourhoods.

Within this IEA project, beside others, following things will be investigated and analized:

• Literature on energy-flexible energy systems in buildings and neighborhoods
• Models that integrate decentralized storage and demand response into the energy market
• Resilience strategies to ensure the security and reliability of the energy supply
• Management of distributed energy resources (DERs), energy storage systems and flexible loads of building clusters and neighborhoods
• Further development of the characterization methodology of energy-flexible buildings towards quarters
• Demonstration neighborhoods and models
• Services that can be provided by buildings
• Motivation and obstacles for the stakeholders involved

The Austrian participation in the Annex will further develop characterization and building labeling methods of energy-flexibility. For this purpose, case studies of the project partners are evaluated and the Flexibility Evaluation Tool (FET) is adapted towards evaluation tool for building clusters. Political requirements and new cooperation and business models are analyzed together with the target groups of the construction and building sector as well as energy suppliers and service companies for heat and electricity. The findings from participation in the Annex flow directly into the implementation of a national smart readiness indicator (SRI) methodology.

National seminar on results of the IEA EBC Annex 82 in Graz:

A project of the Austrian IEA cooperation in the “Energy in Buildings and Community (EBC)” program recently reached its national conclusion at a seminar in Graz. On Wednesday, October 16, 2024, in the Grand Hotel Wiesler, important topics relating to the energy flexibility of buildings and districts, like business models and incentive systems (Carolin Monsberger, AIT), smart regulations (Bernhard Kling, BOKU), decarbonization and thermal comfort (Jens Leibold, FH Technikum Wien), component activation as a flexibility option (Guntram Preßmair, e7) and stakeholder participation (Armin Knotzer, AEE INTEC) were discussed. The presentations can be found further down the page.