Unlocking Flexibility with Near Real-Time Building Models: Insights from the TKI Built4Buildings Project

Due to the increasing availability of irregularly generated solar energy and wind power, as well as the rise in electric vehicles and heat pumps, not only is there a growing imbalance in supply and demand, but the peaks are also becoming larger. In the Netherlands, businesses are increasingly hindered in expanding electric vehicle charging, solar panels, and heat pumps on existing company premises due to limited electricity grid capacity. In the Dutch TKI project Brains4Building, numerous companies collaborate on solutions to unlock flexibility in commercial buildings to better balance supply and demand and reduce peak demand. Together with project partners, models are developed for the building and its installations, and these models are calibrated in near real-time using building data. These models are employed to predict energy consumption and local production. Based on these predictions, a controller is being developed to adjust the energy demand accordingly to anticipate grid connection limits and address the supply-demand imbalance. Additionally, several other projects are showcased where similar solutions are applied.