The Finnish pilot deals with consumer flexibility in the view of holistic energy management, covering not only electricity usage but also heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. The focus is primarily on consumers in apartment buildings in the city of Helsinki, with a significant share of renewables installed such as heat pumps and solar panels.
The building owners and its residents have a common interest to keep the building’s energy costs at a minimum and the iFLEX Assistant is integrated into the existing Building Energy Management System with the aim to optimise the energy performance. The assistant will learn and adapt to the energy behaviour and profile of the building and utilise this information, together with information on market prices for electricity and district heating as well as information on the local flexible renewable resources, to find optimal control policies.
In the city of Oulu, the iFLEX Assistant will be tested in a different type of building, which is a supermarket representing commercial, large-scale consumers. The supermarket is located in an urban area which uses renewable energy to achieve annual zero energy import and zero carbon emissions.