US building energy efficiency and flexibility as an electric grid resource
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Buildings consume 75% of U.S. electricity; therefore, improving the efficiency and flexibility of building operations could increase the reliability and resilience of the rapidly-changing electricity system. We estimate the technical potential near- and long-term impacts of best available building efficiency and flexibility measures on annual electricity use and hourly demand across the contiguous U.S. Co-deployment of building efficiency and flexibility avoids up to 742 TWh of annual electricity use and 181 GW of daily net peak load in 2030, rising to 800 TWh and 208 GW by 2050; at least 59 GW and 69 GW of the peak reductions are dispatchable. Implementing efficiency measures alongside flexibility measures reduces the potential for off-peak load increases, underscoring limitations on load shifting in efficient buildings. Overall, however, we find a substantial building-grid resource that could reduce future fossil-fired generation needs while also reducing dependence on energy storage with increasing variable renewable energy penetration.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE); USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Building Technologies Office
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-05CH11231; AC36-08GO28308
- OSTI ID:
- 1807480
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/JA--5500-78196; ark:/13030/qt1d54j3k6
- Journal Information:
- Joule, Journal Name: Joule Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 5; ISSN 2542-4351
- Publisher:
- Elsevier - Cell PressCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
| Scout Benchmark Scenarios for U.S. Building Energy and CO2 Emissions to 2050 | dataset | January 2024 |
| Scout Benchmark Scenarios for U.S. Building Energy and CO2 Emissions to 2050 | dataset | January 2022 |
| Scout Benchmark Scenarios for U.S. Building Energy and CO2 Emissions to 2050 | dataset | January 2024 |
| Scout Benchmark Scenarios for U.S. Building Energy and CO2 Emissions to 2050 | dataset | January 2023 |
| Scout Benchmark Scenarios for U.S. Building Energy and CO2 Emissions to 2050 | dataset | January 2022 |
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