Buildings on the Grid Edge

To support the decarbonisation of our energy system and to enable increased renewables-penetration into our energy mix, the UK's energy system requires new forms of flexibility: Ofgem forecasts requirements of 150 GW of system flexibility, with 15GW from demand-side actors. Accordingly, the UK Government is introducing regulatory reforms ('wider access' reform such as those enabled by ELEXON P375 regulation changes, Virtual Lead Parties, and 'Behind the Boundary' settlement) designed to facilitate the development of new forms of demand-side flexibility.

Grid Edge believes that dispatchable assets found in commercial buildings are one of these required new sources of flexibility, and that they are ideally placed to benefit from the forthcoming changes in energy market regulation. However, these building assets are currently being underutilised as sources of flexibility, due to two related factors:

Building operators prioritising occupant comfort over flexible load management goals (and perception that this may be jeopardised by dynamic load management),

A perception that conventional demand-response mechanisms are too rigid or ill-designed to accommodate the variable within-day loads and conditions of commercial buildings.

We believe that the critical enabling innovation required to overcome these barriers is the application of predictive data that can connect and contextualise the requirements of both the building operator and the energy system simultaneously: i.e. enabling building operators to predict, optimise, and control the impact on comfort of dynamically adjusting their energy demand in response to new flexibility requirements and opportunities.

As such, this project will support the creation of a new predictive load optimisation technology that aims to empower commercial building operators to dynamically predict, optimise, and flexibly control their energy profile in line with emerging energy system flexibility requirements. The project will pay particular attention to potential for building energy assets to exploit the new forms of flexibility opportunities that are being created by Ofgem's wider access reforms, such as the creation of Virtual Lead Party mechanisms and emerging agile tariff structures enabled by 'Behind the Boundary' settlement.

In addition, the project will also explore the critical enabling role that Facilities Management providers play as gatekeepers to building and energy data, and as guardians of energy and environmental management in the built environment.

As our understanding of emerging flexibility opportunities and markets has advanced, the project has taken responding to the carbon intensity of the grid as its most accessible opportunity, providing the ability for any building to reduce its carbon emissions by scheduling consumption to occur during periods of low carbon intensity and avoiding consumption during periods of high carbon intensity. By combining this with our predictive models on building assets and their effects, we can provide building operators recommendations on when and how to shift their loads for minimal effect on the occupants and maximum reduction in carbon. It is expected that since energy costs tend to follow carbon intensity, benefits will be amplified by new market opportunities, providing additional financial incentives for improving consumption profiles in this way.