This Annex is concerned with enabling buildings to participate as flexible demand assets in energy systems.   

It builds on the work of IEA EBC Annexes 67, 81 and 82.  It will provide building owners and energy market participants with a framework of concepts, procedures, tools and evidence - that can enable trustworthy, automated, cost-effective trading of flexibility resources from buildings; at scale. 

The Annex will consider the technologies available for delivering flexibility from heating and cooling systems in individual buildings – with a focus on supporting adoption of simple, repeatable, scalable solutions. The Annex will also consider the digital infrastructure necessary for coordinating and automating dispatch of large numbers of flexible load resources, in local and national energy markets/schemes. The Annex will also consider the ability of flexible energy resources to reduce carbon emissions, based on time-of-use carbon intensity of energy sources.

The Annex will deliver a number of important outputs for a range of audiences. Energy infrastructure planners and government policy makers will be provided with information management concepts and platform design frameworks, to help coordinate flexibility in energy systems that have high levels of variable renewable energy resources. Building owners will be provided with independent guidelines, case studies and other knowledge sharing resources to help simplify and de-risk implementation. Flexibility product suppliers will be provided with performance metrics and independent guidelines that can help to increase trust in their products.

The Annex will actively disseminate findings, and engage with research and industry audiences, by publishing reports, convening webinars and through an online case-studies web portal.