Prof. WANG Shengwei, Director of Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Research Institute for Smart Energy (RISE) and Prof. Lasantha MEEGAHAPOLA, Associate Professor of School of Engineering of RMIT University, have recently published a white paper titled “Delivering Demand Response Services to the Power Grid via Smart Building Load Flexibility”.
The white paper, a deliverable from a research project supported by the PolyU–RMIT FutureLab, explores the provision of demand response services through smart building load flexibility. The project “Advanced Grid Support Services from Smart Buildings and Building Microgrids” involves experiments on load flexibility, building data analytics and developing machine learning models to identify load flexibility in smart buildings, and building microgrids to provide grid support services.
Demand response, a method of power balancing, encourages customers to adjust their energy usage in response to price signals. Digitalisation and advances in communications technologies, artificial intelligence and machine learning further enhance buildings’ potential for demand response.
The white paper demonstrated how building energy flexibility can be characterised by power adjustment direction, capacity, availability, predictability and response time. The team also analysed ancillary service frameworks in Australia, China and Hong Kong, and concluded by examining the regulatory and policy landscapes across the three places and posing open industry and research questions. Overall, advancements in electric vehicles, artificial intelligence, smart energy conversion, and digitalisation provide substantial opportunities for leveraging smart building load flexibility for demand response services to power grids. Effective regulations, policies, and market mechanisms will be critical for unlocking building load flexibility.
Read the full paper at: https://zenodo.org/records/14571315
| Research Units | Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Research Institute for Smart Energy |
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