Energy retrofitting effects on the energy flexibility of dwellings

Electrification of the built environment is foreseen as a main driver for energy transition for more effective, electric renewable capacity firming. Direct and on-time use of electricity is the best way to integrate them, but the current energy demand of residential building stock is often mainly fuel-based. Switching from fuel to electric-driven heating systems could play a key role. Yet, it implies modifications in the building stock due to the change in the temperature of the supplied heat by new heat pumps compared to existing boilers and in power demand to the electricity meter. Conventional energy retrofitting scenarios are usually evaluated in terms of cost-effective energy saving, while the effects on the electrification and flexibility are neglected. In this paper, the improvement of the building envelope and the installations of electric-driven space heating and domestic hot water production systems is analyzed for 419 dwellings. The dwellings database was built by means of a survey among the students attending the Faculty of Architecture at Sapienza University of Rome. A set of key performance indicators were selected for energy and environmental performance. The changes in the energy flexibility led to the viable participation of all the dwellings to a demand response programme.