Unified DR interoperability framework enabling market participation of active energy consumers

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - DRIMPAC (Unified DR interoperability framework enabling market participation of active energy consumers)

Okres sprawozdawczy: 2020-03-01 do 2022-08-31

With the transition of Europe’s energy system to cleaner but intermittent in nature renewable sources, the need for demand-side flexibility is becoming increasingly important. The active participation of energy consumers in the energy markets is moving into the foreground as a means to improve services for consumers, while helping to drive competition, integrate more variable renewable energy sources, enable the cost-effective uptake of electric vehicles and allow for a nimble operation of the power system. Despite the elimination of several regulatory barriers, demand response (DR) programs have not yet had the desired impact on the energy system, mainly because residential and tertiary buildings, responsible for 44% of final energy consumption in Europe, remain disengaged from DR activities. Their demand flexibility can prove to be an invaluable resource for the energy system, but as of today several roadblocks still hamper their direct, active participation in energy markets:
1) Technology-related roadblocks: massive and cost-effective roll-out of DR programs require communication of DR signals, which remains a significant barrier. The extreme fragmentation of protocols, data models and standards that govern building management systems and building-grid communications as well as the immaturity of the market leaves little room for the market players to converge to interoperable solutions due to increased complexity and cost. As a result, it becomes impossible to support enticing business propositions for commercial parties despite the obvious benefits of DR at the energy system level.
2) Consumer-related roadblocks: both price and incentive-based DR programs can be intrusive for consumers and carry either the risk of increased energy bills or potentially major inconveniences correspondingly. Energy consumers and especially home dwellers are risk averse, largely unaware of the potential benefits and cannot bear the hassle of managing their energy consumption profile based on incoming, irregular DR signals. In order for consumers to take ownership of the energy transition they need easy-to-understand information about DR programs; competitive services and dynamic tariff schemes; as well as automation to offload daily management hindrances to another entity acting on their behalf and faithfully representing their interests, lifestyle choices and personal preferences.
DRIMPAC primary objective is to provide a universal technological framework for end-to-end communication of the necessary information for the discovery and delivery of demand flexibility as well as to enhance building management intelligence in order to coordinate energy demand for the mutual benefit of the consumer and the energy system, while preserving comfortable and healthy living conditions. DRIMPAC will develop a standards-based interoperability platform with support for legacy protocols that will homogenize the communication requirements between buildings and the energy system in order to reduce the extreme fragmentation of interfaces currently in place.
DRIMPAC solution will include a human-centric, DR-enabled intelligent energy management system for residential and tertiary buildings that will automatically respond to DR requests, optimally making use of the building infrastructure and capabilities in order to bring the maximum benefits to consumers.
Furthermore, DRIMPAC will lay the necessary groundwork in preparation for the energy system transition by proposing, demonstrating and validating in real-life settings an innovative service offering for energy providers and accompanying business models, while proposing amendments and enhancements to standardization bodies.

In the second period of the project, work has focused mainly on the following areas:
- completion of the development and integration of the DRIMPAC solution components.
- completion of the deployment of the required equipment, along with its monitoring and maintenance.
- perform testing and demonstration activities the pilot sites.
- validate the business models of the DRIMPAC solution.
- conduct technical and economical evaluation of the DRIMPAC solution, on the pilot sites.

The analysis of the results, have shown a generally high success rate of the executed DR events, ranging from 60 to over 95%, varying among residential, tertiary buildings and District-Level Distributed Energy Resources (DERs).
Peak load reduction amounted in average ranging from 26% to even 56%, varying among residential and tertiary buildings. The energy cost savings bore similar results.
Finally, the end-user acceptance of the DRIMPAC solution reached almost 89% in some pilots.
Regarding the business models evaluation, the business model with the smallest need for regulatory improvement is the FLESCO model, which is feasible in most of the EU member states.
These results have been disseminated throughout the entirety of the DRIMPAC project lifecycle via, the website, newsletters, published papers and 2 dedicated articles, attending conferences, dedicated workshops
In terms of exploitation, several products, mostly software, but also services have been indicated as the DRIMPAC solution exploitable assets.

DRIMPAC exploits the vast amount of flexibility offered from the residential and commercial buildings by developing tailor-made Customer Energy Management Systems with embedded demand response services or by integrating demand response into existing building energy management systems.
DRIMPAC energy demand management optimization framework relies on a set of optimization engines being supported and configured by data-driven software modules for enabling demand flexibility extraction without violating the occupants’ comfort level while exploiting the thermal storage capabilities of the building spaces and the latent demand flexibility offered by several building assets (mainly heating/cooling systems).
The analysis of the results, have shown a generally high success rate of the executed DR events, ranging from 60 to over 95%, varying among residential, tertiary buildings and District-Level Distributed Energy Resources (DERs).
Peak load reduction amounted in average ranging from 26% to even 56%, varying among residential and tertiary buildings. The energy cost savings bore similar results.
Finally, the end-user acceptance of the DRIMPAC solution reached almost 89% in some pilots.
Until now, the market remains deeply fragmented while smart energy management systems that integrate demand response are still missing. DRIMPAC has proceeded with the development of a tailor-made Customer Energy Management system and a building gateway (Smart Box) which were designed based on the requirements and specifications set by the M/490 Functional Flexibility Architecture and the OneM2M standard to be future-proof.
One of the key features of the DRIMPAC solution is its interoperability with existing hardware (such as BEMS). The reduced reliance on additional hardware needed for conducting DR events is a convincing cost advantage compared to other DR approaches.
through the implementation of DRIMPAC solution several impacts on the socio-economic fabric have been detected, such as:
- emission reduction via broader utilization of DR,
- enhanced market participation and liquidity,
- potential jobs created,
- energy efficiency in buildings,
- active role of prosumers and consumers awareness, and,
- opportunities for SMEs

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - DRIMPAC (Unified DR interoperability framework enabling market participation of active energy consumers)

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