Demand response in blocks of buildings: opportunities and requirements

Increased Demand Response (DR) is essential to fully exploit European power systems, which in turn is an absolute prerequisite for meeting European targets related to energy efficiency and climate change. Essentially DR involves consumers reducing or shifting their electricity usage during periods of peak electricity demand in response to time-based tariffs or other forms of financial incentives. The opportunities for realising demand response vary across Europe as they are dependent on the particular regulatory, market and technical contexts in different European counties. Nevertheless successful DR programs are becoming increasingly common for large industrial customers. However DR programs aimed at small and medium scale customers have mostly failed to meet their expected potential. Blocks of buildings offer more flexibility in the timing of energy use, local energy generation and energy storage than single buildings and as such researchers and the energy industry are beginning to consider how blocks of buildings can operate collectively within energy networks to enhance the effectiveness of DR programs. This paper identifies the opportunities and technical, market and regulatory requirements for realising DR services in blocks of buildings in the European context. The work presented is part of an ongoing European Horizon 2020 project entitled Demand Response in Blocks of Buildings.