Demand Side Management with Buildings - introducing the projects Building2Grid and BED

The two projects Building2Grid and BED research the possible storage capabilities that can be introduced by buildings into the smart power grid. The processes inside buildings that seem to be able to be activated for storing and demand-response techniques consist mainly of the thermal processes that could be delayed or activated prior to their normal schedule. The effort of influencing these processes leads to various challenges like the questions of communication between the building and the coordination units of the power grid, the prediction of the behavior inside the buildings or the influencing of the internal processes. Different approaches and solutions are needed to reach the ultimate goal for activation buildings (especially commercial buildings) as active nodes for the smart power grid.