IEA EBC Annex 67 Energy Flexible Buildings

The foreseen large deployment of renewable energy sources may seriously affect the stability of energy grids. It will be necessary to control energy consumption to match instantaneous energy production. The built-in Energy Flexibility in buildings may be utilized for stabilizing the energy grids, allowing for a larger roll out of renewable technologies.

The Energy Flexibility of a building is the ability to manage its energy demand and generation according to local climate conditions, user needs and grid requirements. Energy Flexibility of buildings will thus allow for demand side management and load control and thereby demand response based on the requirements of the surrounding grids.

Currently there is, however, no overview or insight into how much Energy Flexibility different building types and their usage may be able to offer to future energy systems. Three is thus a need for increasing know ledge on and demonstration of the Energy Flexibility Buildings can provide for the energy grids as well of to identify critical aspects and possible solutions to manage this Energy Flexibility.

The paper discusses the background, the aims and the work plan of IEA (International Energy Agency) EBC (Energy in Buildings and Communities programme) Annex 67. The working phase of IEA EBC Annex 67 started in June 2015 and will last until June 2019. The paper outlines the scene for a session with papers related to IEA EBC Annex 67 written by participants of IEA EBC Annex 67.