| Description |
In buildings, indirect emissions are from electricity use, and onsite fuel combustion produces direct emissions. Factors like tradeoffs between gas and electricity use, grid dynamics, location, and application of the building determine the proper energy management scenarios. This work utilizes building and grid interactions to achieve economic and environmental objectives rather than only focusing on energy efficiency in the built environment. Drivers on both the demand and supply sides of electricity market determine the marginal generators and the fuel mix and emission production of the grid. Emission factors depend on the amount of generation, generator heat-rate, the efficiency of the power plant, and finally the active generators. So, as the demand changes during the day, the emission production and emission factors vary. Researchers estimate the effect of load interventions on emission by studying and evaluating the temporal emission factors. The results of this study critically compare the available methods of emission factors estimation for building emission production. The time and the amount of electricity use are both critical in indirect emissions. Casespecific factors such as the building specifications and grid topology determine the effectiveness of emission-reducing load reductions (achievable with proper energy-saving retrofits) and load shifting measures (by changing the building operation). This work evaluates the hourly effect of the operational, managerial, and constructional retrofits on the building energy use in several locations to estimate total emission savings. Because of the grid dynamics and the effect of variable factors like onsite generation, weather conditions, and the building operation, this work incorporates optimization methods for demand response to incorporate both onsite and grid driven factors in a day-ahead framework. The multiobjective optimization results suggest 0.4% to 11.38% emission savings while maintaining thermal comfort. This research studies electricity supply and demand interactions specifically in commercial buildings. The results (1) lay the framework for proper calculation of indirect emissions, (2) emphasize the importance of electricity use timing and location on cost and emissions, and (3) represent the optimized building operation for economic and environmental objectives. This work shows the value of building grid interactions by providing interdisciplinary solutions for building's emission reduction. iv |
