CoEnerBuild

The primary goal of the CoEnerBuild project is to address contemporary energy challenges by designing a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) that aggregates geographically distributed buildings to act as a singular, highly efficient energy entity. The project focuses on developing a robust mathematical model and control software to regulate the energy flow within this Building VPP (BVPP), optimizing the use of renewable energy sources and storage systems. A central objective involves establishing a new methodology for correct equipment sizing by exploiting the benefits of building aggregation, which significantly reduces initial investment costs and nominal power requirements for conversion to nearly zero-energy buildings. Ultimately, the initiative seeks to enhance grid resilience, maximize consumer profit through market bidding, and contribute to the clean energy transition by promoting a flexible, decentralized power system that reduces carbon emissions.

The CoEnerBuild project addresses the limitation of conventional virtual power plants (VPPs), which often focus only on large-scale assets or fail to fully utilize the local energy production of modern buildings. Current building-level solutions frequently overlook geographically distributed aggregation or focus solely on community-scale microgrids. To go beyond the state of the art, the project develops a comprehensive mathematical and algorithmic framework that coordinates individual building energy management systems (EMS) through a central BVPP-EMS. Unlike traditional sizing methods based on individual energy history, this approach introduces a new methodology for optimal equipment sizing that exploits the benefits of building aggregation to reduce nominal power requirements and initial investment costs. By integrating occupant-centric control with real-time market bidding and ancillary grid services, the project transforms small prosumers into a collaborative, large-scale energy entity.

The CoEnerBuild project expects to deliver a comprehensive algorithmic model and software that integrates control rules for aggregated buildings, allowing them to function as a collaborative and highly efficient energy entity. Key results include a reduction in electricity costs and a decrease in initial investment costs for building equipment through an optimized sizing methodology that takes advantage of building aggregation. By advancing the technology from its initial stages to a demonstration level, the project aims to demonstrate significant grid resilience and stability. Economic impacts involve positioning building residents as key players in the energy trading market, tapping into a sector with significant projected market growth. Social and environmental benefits include accelerating the clean energy transition, promoting smarter cities, and empowering citizens as active participants in a decentralized, low-carbon power system that minimizes greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, the project aims to create high-quality job opportunities and drive sustainable economic growth.