Electric Load Behaviour and DSM-Potential of Office Buildings

Due to the rising use of fluctuating renewable energy production, electricity production curve in the future will not be able to follow the demand curve anymore. Therefore, time-critical, variable charges are likely to be introduced. Whereas large consumers of electricity already have to pay attention to this issue - the peak demand is measured and cost effective for cus-tomers with a consumption higher than 100,000 kWh or connection power more than 50 kW (ElWOG, 2010) - the topic will become relevant for other customers in the future. Due to the roll-out of Smart Meters, it is very likely that time-relevant tariffs will become standard for all kinds of users, which means that the moment of electricity consumption will be cost-relevant. This paper deals with the electric load behaviour of office buildings and their potential to use Demand Side Management (DSM) to optimise load behavior. Because of use during the day, when prices are usually higher than during the night, office buildings mainly demand electrical energy during periods of high prices. By identification and utilisation of DSM potential, con-siderable sections of the demand can be shifted to hours with lower prices. Another possibil-ity to shift loads is to use thermal or electrochemical storage systems.