Data-Driven Smart Buildings

Varennes Net-Zero Energy Library (Energy Platform)

Transactive energy is an integral aspect of the global ongoing energy transition for Quebec. This involves modelling and controlling residential, institutional and commercial users loads to allow demand-side energy flexibility participation in the local energy market and evaluation of their impact on the grid system.

This project aims to deliver an energy platform to learn how dynamic energy exchanges can be tailored to the needs of participating customers and market conditions of the electricity network. This is achieved by means of an agent-based model (ABM) that enables to understand the economic and technical constraints required to harmonise energy transaction, demand-side flexibility and energy prices between neighbourhoods and the grid.

The institutional building of the Varennes library is used as a case study to increase the knowledge on the impact of occupancy behaviour and preference on the local market. The library includes unique and innovative features, such as a building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) system, geothermal heat pumps as the main heating/cooling source, and hydronic radiant slab for thermal storage.

This building and its associated assets are integrated into the local energy market testbed being created. The building agents take the electrical and thermal constraints as well as some of the occupant preferences constraints into account. In this case study we use a market price, where buyers submit bids to purchase energy considering their costs and preference while sellers make tenders to sell energy by maximising their profits. A transaction will be established when their requirements are matched. The bids and transactions can be made either in exchanges or bilaterally. In addition, transaction platforms are virtualised as software applications on the cloud. Marketers are responsible for managing transactions and reducing the imbalance between energy demand and supply. With large-scale, frequent and efficient transactions, the market price will gradually stabilise and balance supply and demand.

Project Information

Location

Montréal, Canada

Building Typology

Library

Technology Installed / Proposed

Building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) system, geothermal heat pumps as the main heating/cooling source, and hydronic radiant slab for thermal storage.

Data Availability

Library heating and cooling data provided by four electric ground-source heat-pumps, radiant hydronic slab temperature, air set-point temperatures, and occupancy preferences.

Status

Operational - Awaiting Results

Project Aim

The general objective of this study is to develop and integrate an institutional building in a transactive energy platform for a complete representation of the urban environment and the different kinds of buildings that characterise it.

The following objectives are addressed as part of this study:

Analysis of the available occupancy profiles of the Varennes library with respect to temporal and environmental features (e.g., seasons, time of day, and/ or weather conditions) and ranking of their impact on the library occupancy schedules.
Development of a prediction model to forecast day-ahead occupancy of the library based on the features identified from the objective above.
Development of a decision-making framework for managing thermal demand in the library as a function of occupancy level.
Formulation of an agent-based model for the Varennes library as a representative example of an institutional building in the local bidding energy market (i.e. participation scenarios in transactive energy as function of occupancy).

Additional Information

Varennes Library Building

Data-Driven analysis oriented for the energy flexibility quantification

For more information on the Case Study

Contact Person: Dr Fatima Amara

Hydro-Quebec agree that the case study information of Varennes Net-Zero Energy Library (Energy Platform) can be shared under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. This license allows others to download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can't change them in any way or use them commercially.