Optimizing building hybrid energy systems for demand response marketplace operation

Increasing amounts of renewable power make it difficult to balance supply and demand in the grid. European Transmission System Operators invite consumers to participate in grid balancing through various demand response mechanisms. Individual buildings can contribute to grid balancing by reacting to dynamic electricity prices through implicit demand response. Buildings can also participate in explicit demand response programs, for instance through the Frequency Containment Reserve (FCR) market. This study presents a novel linear programming optimization model for implicit and explicit demand response operation of a building with a hybrid energy system including a ground source heat pump, district heating, power storage, heat storage, and which participates in the daily FCR market. The model is applied to the retrofit planning of an office building in subarctic Helsinki, Finland. The study compares four potential configurations, with and without power storage and with and without FCR trade. Results show that for the target building, FCR trade can save yearly about 3 % of the energy costs. Power storage was found to be cost-efficient only in conjunction with FCR trade.