Integration of Demand Response in Energy Management Systems while ensuring interoperability through Public Private Partnership (EeB PPP)

At the building and building unit level (residential or non-residential) the focus should be on optimisation, integration and demonstration of cost effective and interoperable solutions, including testing of new technologies and systems in real life situations.

The proposed solutions shall be demonstrated for buildings which incorporate intelligent Energy Management Systems and new technologies (smart home devices). They should ensure interoperability, evolving and adapting to the operational environment (self-learning), including indoor and outdoor conditions, the availability of energy from local RES generation, the availability and price of energy from grids and local energy storage capacities. Also the possibility of clustering individual demand response services, self-generation and storage at district level should be considered. Such solutions should be effective and resilient, ensuring low operational and maintenance costs and could include functions for predictive maintenance. Solutions should be compatible and appropriately integrated with smart grids via open standards, taking into account existing standards as well as standards under development. The proposed activities should clearly involve and engage building occupants, helping them to become an interactive part of the demand response solution, as well as better managing their energy demand. Proposals should involve energy suppliers (DSOs) and industrial technology suppliers.

The topic EUB-02-2017 (""Utilities: energy management at home and in buildings"") in Part 5.i Information and Communication Technologies of the Work Programme is also relevant and addresses similar challenges.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 3 and 4 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

This topic will be implemented under the PPP on Energy-efficient Buildings. The activities are expected to be implemented at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6-8 (please see part G of the General Annexes).

The control, automation and monitoring tools that can be integrated into buildings are becoming more and more sophisticated. In order to guarantee energy efficient operation, building service systems need to deliver adequate control and monitoring of building energy parameters. It is essential to develop and demonstrate interoperable energy automation, control and monitoring tools for efficient heating, domestic hot water, ventilation, cooling, lighting, shading, storage, energy generation, and other building systems while ensuring a high quality indoor environment. This includes the investigation of demand response and energy management of individual customers as well.

The challenge is to integrate demand response enabling elements into Energy Management Systems and thus create 'building – energy system interaction' towards optimising, at building level, energy consumption, production and storage considering the availability and price of energy supplied via the grid. A specific challenge is that Energy Management Systems and smart home devices are often not interoperable but are linked to a certain brand, technology and/or standard. Therefore full interoperability between grids, systems and products for seamless integration of all required components in building energy management systems is crucial.

Proposals are expected to demonstrate the impacts listed below, using quantified indicators and targets wherever possible:

• Facilitate the deployment of solutions that would improve demand response in buildings.
• Real time optimisation of energy demand and supply integrating demand-response into intelligent building energy management systems and/or other systems.
• High replicability across the EU.
• Energy cost savings through integrated home automation solutions.
• Higher indoor environmental quality and adaptability to external conditions, leading to improved comfort and living standards, while optimising energy consumption.