Electrical and thermal integrated load management of tertiary buildings

In European Union (EU), buildings are the larger consumers of energy. To save energy, use of energy in buildings must be effectively controlled on the basis of accurate field information, acquired from indoor and outdoor sensors. In this work an all-round management approach is proposed to simultaneously control in a building all types of load, both thermal and electrical. To this aim, a load simulator implementing a novel analysis and simulation method of customer’s electric energy usage is illustrated. The model provides an estimated daily load profile by following a bottom-up approach through procedures each focused on simulating a specific energy usage in the building. The paper reports some of the main flow charts of the simulation model, as well as possible applications of the program for the prediction of the response of buildings to different demand management strategies. The suggested on-line management system was also validated through field experimental tests and a case study, whose results are reported and discussed.