Energy flexibility from the consumer: Integrating local electricity and heat supplies in a building

The increasing penetration level of renewable energy requires more flexibility measures to be implemented in future energy systems. Integrating an energy consumer's local energy supplies connects multiple energy networks (i.e., the electrical grid, the district heating network, and gas network) in a decentralized way. Such integration enhances the flexibility of energy systems. In this work, a Swedish office building is investigated as a case study. Different components, including heat pump, electrical heater, battery and hot water storage tank are integrated into the electricity and heat supply system of the building. Special focus is placed on the flexibility that the studied building can provide to the electrical grid (i.e., the building modulates the electricity consumption in response to the grid operator's requirements). The flexibility is described by two metrics including the flexibility hours and the flexibility energy. Optimization of the component capacities and the operation profiles is carried out by using Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP). The results show that the system fully relies on electricity for the heat demand when not considering the flexibility requirements of the electrical grid. This suggests that district heating is economically unfavorable compared with using electricity for the heat demand in the studied case. However, when flexibility requirements are added, the system turns to the district heating network for part of the heat demand. The system provides great flexibility to the electrical grid through such integration. The flexibility hours can be over 5200 h in a year, and the flexibility energy reaches more than 15.7 MWh (36% of the yearly electricity consumption). The yearly operation cost of the system slightly increases from 62,273 to 65,178 SEK when the flexibility hours increase from 304 to 5209 h. The results revealed that flexibility can be provided from the district heating network to the electrical grid via the building.