Study of electrical consumption flexibility offered by HVAC system based on rooms thermal modelling - tertiary building case study

In this paper we propose a method to evaluate the electric flexibility of tertiary building equipment of the Catholic University of Lille campus. There is no single obvious definition for electric flexibility as it depends on the application and the case of study. In our research we target the potential flexibility offered by building's electrical equipment to see whether the power consumed by these appliances can be subjected to shifting, scheduling, or shedding. After understanding the nature of load consumptions, the heating and ventilation equipment are the type of controlled equipment, thus it is possible to act on the operation of heating and ventilation systems. The method uses thermal modelling approach to link between the electrical flexible power and room's thermal behaviour. Scenarios are covered when receiving a flexibility order form the distribution system operator (DSO) and the effect of actions taken due to the DSO signal on the physical thermal behaviour of the room.