From energy flexibility to design choice

Energy flexible buildings are expected to become a crucial component of our energy grid to balance the mismatch between energy demand and energy production. Therefore, it could be of great interest to develop tools that allow building designers and engineers to make the best choices regarding energy flexibility. The aim of this paper is to propose a method to generate design and control recommendations to increase the energy flexibility of buildings based on open source computer simulations. The proposed method uses OpenModelica and the building component library of the IBPSA project to generate a building model. The method has been tested using a case study. The values of specific parameters with high influence on energy flexibility have been modified and the results of the changes on the energy flexibility KPIs have been measured. The results are presented in three different possible visualisations. The lessons learned from the process of applying the method have been used to outline a possible future energy flexibility analysis tool.