Multi-scale control and evaluation models across buildings, grids, and urban areas toward high penetration of variable renewable energy

While renewable energy deployment accelerates toward a decarbonized society, solar and wind output is highly variable, and high penetration of variable renewable energy (VRE) requires flexible balancing of electricity supply and demand. The International Energy Agency (IEA) classifies VRE integration into six phases; many countries, including Japan, are approaching the higher phases, which demand fundamental changes in power system operation. In Japan, buildings acting as demand-side resources and urban areas accommodating VRE hold the key to grid flexibility. This, however, requires simultaneously addressing building energy management and occupant well-being, grid coordination, and aggregate effects at the urban scale. This module therefore develops integrated multi-scale control and evaluation models across the building, human, grid, and urban scales, starting from building control, to (A) optimize building operation for both VRE utilization and indoor comfort, (B) identify conditions for building–grid coordination, and (C) evaluate the VRE hosting capacity and energy storage requirements of urban areas.