Sim4Blocks Simulation supported real-time energy management in building blocks


Acronym	Sim4Blocks
Start date	01/04/2016	End date: 31/03/2020	Extended until 30/09/2020
Program	H2020-EU.3.3.1	G.A.: 695965	View Cordis file card
Topic	EE-06-2015 – Demand response in blocks of buildings

ABSTRACT

SIM4BLOCKS will develop innovative demand response (DR) services for smaller residential and commercial customers, implement and test these services in three pilot sites and transfer successful DR models to customers of Project partners in further European countries. The pilot sites are blocks of highly energy efficient buildings with a diverse range of renewable and cogeneration supply systems and requisite ICT infrastructure that allows direct testing of DR strategies.

Resources

Introduction

Sim4Blocks aims to maximise the use of renewable energy at the block of buildings scale through demand response

Deliverables

Sim4Blocks public deliverables

D1.3 – Report on legal, regulatory and data protection requirements to define a common frame for rolling out the services in Europe
D1.4 – Report on technology transferability to partners’ countries
D2.1 – Building characterisation: Classification and clustering algorithms
D2.2 – User behaviour models
D2.3 – Building thermal prediction and comparison of different modelling approaches / thermal demand models
D3.1 – Optimisation strategies for the use case scenarios
D3.4 – Data extraction and communication requirements
D3.5 – Markets and policy modelling environment
D4.4 – Implementation success report
D5.2 – Validation methodology and baseline
D5.3 – Evaluation report for each use case at the pilot sites
D7.1 – Impact of DR to test the test markets
D7.2 – Clarification of market access

Miscellaneous

News

Sim4Blocks Newsletters

Pilot results

Wüstenrot virtual site visit

The municipality of Wüstenrot, near Stuttgart in Germany, is working towards the ambitious plan to become energy independent by 2020 and to cover its whole energy demand (thermal and electricity) with renewable energy.

During the workshop, in which residents will gather with project partners, industry leaders and policy makers on a local and EU level, delegates will hear how the project developed appropriate business models for the energy services at the level of blocks of buildings and how it has gone about optimising demand response monitoring for future smart building indicators. Project results from the three pilot sites will be discussed as well as an examination of market realities for demand response – what works and what doesn’t.

Sim4blocks will also be filming the site visit to Wüstenrot and the live presentation of the results. This, along with video interviews of the pilot site leaders, will form a whole series of releases over the coming weeks.

The project

The growing share of variable renewable generation strongly increases the need for flexibility1 in the electricity system, which can be provided by flexible energy generation, demand side participation and energy storage systems.

While today only very large, mainly industrial, customers have participated in flexibility markets, SIMBLOCK proposes to develop new demand response (DR) services for smaller residential and commercial customers in blocks of buildings, to implement and test them in three European pilot sites and have the aggregator companies transfer successful results to further European countries.

Sim4Blocks mobile app - energy forecast and optimizer

Captions of the Sim4Blocks App implemented in Sant Cugat pilot site.

The service consists of alerts via SMS that are activated based on the energy saving potential for the next 24 hours. In accessing the user can see the forecast of their electricity consumption based on their history and the optimal consumption in the same day. In this way, the user can see at what time of day it is more interesting to consume electricity, being able to move the peak consumption at the recommended time depending on the price of energy, the solar production of the building and the same profile of each user.

Pilot sites

The pilot sites located in Spain, Germany, and Switzerland, all feature blocks of buildings that have efficient energy supply and distribution systems, and existing IT/monitoring infrastructure. These IT systems can be accessed by the Project to enable user activation strategies, to generate and modify demand profiles for different profiles (i.e. residential, public, commercial) and to optimise the flexible operation of renewables (e.g. biogas, heat-pumps, wind, PV and solar-thermal), cogeneration and storage (e.g. thermal and electrical) for DR.

Objectives

The main objectives of Sim4Blocks are:

To analyse and specify the technical characteristics of the demand flexibility that will enable dynamic demand response (DR). Quantification of DR impacts especially for customers in the residential or small commerce sector is a challenge that will be tackled by pilot site monitoring schemes and parametric simulation studies.
To evaluate the optimal use of this DR capability in the context of the market tariffs, RES supply fluctuations and user interaction. Innovative and fully automated modelling and optimisation services will be combined with big data analytics to provide the best real time and strategic DR actions. The user interface development and user activation programs deliver feedback and guarantee high user acceptance levels.
To develop and implement market access and business models for DR offered by building blocks with a focus on shifting power to heat and on optimizing the several available energy vectors already present in buildings. Business models for the new demand response services will be developed taking into account the role of pricing and cost effectiveness, current limitations and regulations, data policies, market barriers and stakeholder engagement.