Energy Systems for buildings and cities: challenges and opportunities

” We are facing a paradigm shift in energy systems for buildings and cities characterized by

• a growing penetration of intermittent and decentralized renewable electricity
• emergence of millions of households acting as local producers and consumers (prosumers) of the energy,
• non-linear dynamic interaction of several systems which are designed, dimensioned, and controlled at the local level, without a central coordination
• fast growing flood of poor quality data from every system in the building, again collected at the local level without any management/coordination.
• Increased electrification in all the energy sectors, from transport to building heating and cooling which challenge the traditional management of electric power systems.
• introduction of many Building Management Systems (BMS) designed and imposed by different stakeholders with conflicting objectives

In this lecture, we give a few examples of the challenges and opportunities when we are dealing with this paradigm shift and the ever-growing complexity associated to that.