Using building cooling for load shifting on a 5-minute wholesale energy market

Refereed/Peer-reviewed To achieve carbon neutrality there must be a significant increase in the proportion of renewable generation. Energy storage and demand flexibility will accommodate more solar and wind generation. Some energy markets in Australia, northern Europe and the USA have moved or are moving to a 5-min settlement period to increase energy flexibility. Commercial building's HVAC systems could capitalise on new market conditions through 5-min load shifting strategies that have negligible impact on occupant comfort. Here the effectiveness HVAC load shifting strategies for cost arbitrage in 5-min wholesale electrical energy markets are examined. Five strategies are compared using global zone setpoint adjustment and chilled water leaving setpoint adjustment. Results show significant energy flexibility can be achieved without violating occupant comfort. High priced 5-min settlement periods can be successfully coasted over with no HVAC energy consumption for temperatures under 36 °C. Over a 10 week period the case study achieved 14.2% energy cost savings.