The potential and possible effects of power grid support activities on buildings: An analysis of experimental results for ventilation system

This paper reports on the potential and possible effects of using building services installations (notably ventilation systems) to support power grids. This is significant taken that the shift towards smart grids comes with adoption of demand side integration and the concept of active controllable loads. However, it is recommended that demand side resource will be used for grid support activities only if non-disruption in terms of indoor comfort and their responsiveness can be guaranteed. Relevant studies mainly report grid perspective in event of using demand side resources to support the power grid. The result is that little emphasis is given to indoor comfort, building behavior and the exact details of achieving controllability at building level in such events. Using experimental data from an office building in the Netherlands this paper reports on indoor comfort and building behavior in the event of committing installed ventilation systems to provide power grid support services. Possibilities for attaining controllability and responsiveness for the components in such systems are also presented. The study is case specific and contributes to the development of possible operational guidelines for building ventilation systems in event of using them for grid support activities.