Flexumers The concepts of DSM and DR emerge, however, from traditional system thinking, where one looks at the demand side in view of what the system needs - rather than what consumers/ customers can offer the energy system in terms of flexibility, efficiency, and resilience. The flexumer concept examines the demand side from the customer’s perspective. Attention is on consumers, their district heating substations, and the buildings, where consumption takes place. Flexumers are defined as customers who actively contribute to a sustainable, secure, and affordable energy supply by offering thermal flexibility from their buildings to the DH system. Flexible consumption from the customer’s perspective stresses the motivation and commitment of the customer to be a flexibility provider. Customers offer flexibility to the energy system on a voluntary basis, if they want and are motivated. This shifting approach implies that the DH company becomes more dependent on the willingness and ability of the customers to offer flexibility to the system. Therefore, activating flexumers depends on good and close cooperation between the customer and the DH company. In this light, the DH company must consider that customers will still expect a good level of comfort in their buildings, as well as a reasonable (and low) price for their heating. Customers will also, to some extent, expect incentives for their effort in offering flexibility to the DH system. In the flexumer concept tested by HOFOR, all of this is included.
Flexibility - a central part of the future sustainable energy system In the sustainable energy system of the future, production and consumption must be integrated to maximize the utilization of renewable energy, reduce costs, and increase the security of supply. This is valid for the entire energy system, and especially for the electricity and district heating (DH) systems. These two systems are interconnected via combined heat & power plants (CHPs) like biomass CHPs and waste-to-energy CHPs, and will become even more interconnected when new power-to-heat production (PTH) like heat pumps and electrical boilers are installed on a larger scale. The current energy system is highly reliable and resilient due to its built-in flexibility, which includes CHPs capable of adjusting both heating and electricity production in response to demand/consumption. However, this will change as production becomes increasingly dependent on fluctuating renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar. Therefore, it is crucial to identify and implement more flexibility in the system. The figure below illustrates the current and future DH system in Copenhagen: A new way to approach Demand Side Management Energy flexibility can come from multiple energy sources and technologies, such as batteries, electric vehicles, and various types and sizes of heat storage. However, it can be both costly and complex to implement these solutions. As a result, there has been an increased emphasis on Demand Side Management (DSM) and Demand Response (DR), which focus on the flexibility provided by customers.
Figure 1: Illustration of the current and future district heating system in Copenhagen. Flexibility will become more valuable as the production mix changes from CHP to PTH.
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