Virtual Power Plant for Smart Grid Ready Buildings

The project is a feasibility study on how to use larger residential buildings as an integrated part of the smart cities by using the building’s smart grid functions. The demand response potential of the building can be pooled into larger, overall virtual power plants, which will be verified in the project. In this process, it is important to develop tools and business models for aggregators and electricity traders etc. These actors may use the project results to form a basis for future economic models that create business opportunities in the intersection between demand response activities and the free market formation. Furthermore, recommendations on how to construct and retrofit buildings, such that the amount of demand response potential is maximized, will be an outcome of the project. A model will be developed based on a field trial at the Grundfos Student Residence in Aarhus. This model can be utilized in the prioritization of the large number of future energy renovations needed on the housing stock. Additional results will be used in a recommendation on how to involve customers to make them an important and useful asset in future electricity networks to become the “Smart Grid Ready” customers of the future.