Demand response in building energy management via HVAC control with on-site renewable generation and energy storage

Because the huge energy consumption in buildings causes the issues on significant energy cost and potential CO2 emission, there have been tremendous efforts to reduce energy cost and increase the use of renewable energy in building energy management (BEM). Given this context, demand response (DR) has been considered as a promising solution for BEM to reduce electricity bills by adjusting electricity usage patterns in response to time-of-use rates offered by independent system operators and utility companies. In addition, as photovoltaic (PV) panels have been becoming more affordable and accessible, buildings have been regarded as a suitable application of leveraging on-site solar power generation because they can use their roof space for installing PV panels. On-site solar power enables buildings not only directly offset electricity consumption to reduce electricity bills but also contribute to environmental sustainability. In this case, DR can be integrated with on-site solar power generation to improve the utilization of solar power output. For the aforementioned opportunities, this study focuses on the application of DR in BEM via heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) control and intends to develop an optimization model to evaluate the potential impact of the application of DR to BEM.