Implementation of a building energy management system for residential demand response

Demand response is proposed as a solution to handle the fluctuations in the power supply in a scenario with higher penetration of renewable energy sources. Although demand response already offers a positive business case in certain domains, it still lacks maturity in other areas, especially in the residential domain. This paper presents a comprehensive study of a novel BEMS to strengthen the adoption of residential demand response. The proposed consumer-centric BEMS monitors the building performance and its surroundings, interacts with the residents, optimally controls DERs and provides demand response to an aggregator. The BEMS is conceived with a multimodal objective: exploit flexible consumption through demand response and run the building in a energy efficient manner. The system architecture and hardware and software design are detailed. A prototype of the envisioned BEMS has been developed and deployed in a 12-storey residential building. The prototype performance, the scalability, the data monitoring capabilities, and the interaction with the residents and controllability of DERs of the BEMS are demonstrated. Moreover, the study provides an estimated of the total flexibility potential of the testbed.