Dynamic high-Resolution dEmand-sidE Management (DREEM)

Τhe Dynamic high-Resolution dEmand-sidE Management (DREEM) model is a fully integrated energy demand and demand-side management simulation model, focusing on the building sector, which expands the computational capabilities of existing Building Energy System (BES) and demand-side models, by not only calculating energy demand, but by also assessing the benefits and limitations of demand flexibility, primarily for the main end-users (consumers/citizens), and, then for other energy system actors involved (e.g., suppliers, retailers, DSOs, TSOs, etc.).

Key features

The main premise behind the development and the use of the DREEM model has been that, for end-users to have a more active participation to the energy transition, they first need to become more aware of the benefits of investing in new energy products and services.

In this context, the novelty of the model lies in its potential to be used in a wide range of applications, not only to assess the existing technological infrastructure, but also to support the development of business models and regulatory innovations, which maximise the value of energy products and services, and monetise them, to fairly compensate end-users and other energy market actors.

Overall, the DREEM model:

• Embodies key features towards the simulation of renewable energy, energy efficiency, and other demand-flexibility actions, like demand response, in the building sector.
• Builds on the concept of modularity consisting of multiple components, each of which is composed of additional modules, allowing for more flexibility in terms of possible system configurations and computational efficiency (high time resolution and quick simulations) towards a wide range of scenarios, to study different aspects of end-use and energy transition.
• Provides the ability to incorporate future technological breakthroughs in a detailed manner, such as the inclusion of heat pumps, or electric vehicles, given energy transitions envisioning the full electrification of the heating and transport sectors.
• Produces outputs for a group of buildings, for example, a neighbourhood, a district, a municipality, or an energy community.
• Serves as a basis for modelling domestic energy demand within the broader field of local, regional, and national energy systems in different geographical/climate and socioeconomic contexts. Currently, the model’s spatial resolution is mainly limited to the European Union (EU)’s Member States, but given the availability of historical data/observations, the model can be expanded beyond the EU.

All the modules of the model are developed using the “Buildings” library, which is an open-source, freely available Modelica library for building energy and control systems. Alongside to the Modelica models, Python scripts have been developed to model parts of the model’s components, and to enable the interface with the Dymola simulation environment.