Assessing Heating Demand Flexibility in the Swiss Building stock

Abstract

The use of flexibility for demand shifting will play a vital role in the future Swiss power system that mainly relies on non-dispatchable generation. Space heating currently accounts for around 30% of final energy consumption in Switzerland. This proportion is expected to remain similar until 2050. With increased rates of electrification projected for the heating sector (i.e. replacement of fuel-based systems with heat pumps), heating demand has the potential to serve as an important source of flexibility. To ensure occupant comfort, flexibility potential of the space heating needs then to be first evaluated at the building scale before being upscaled to the national level. The aim of this article is to present the quantification of flexibility using the buildings thermal mass at the archetype level. Representative buildings archetype for the Swiss building stock are simulated using the UBEM tool CESAR-P for different patterns of the indoor temperature set point. These preliminary results were used to identify the parameters mainly impacting the power demand reduction, the rebound effect and the indoor temperature reduction. Future work should enable the generation of representative profiles of the flexibility potential for the different groups of Swiss buildings.