Agent-based modeling of interaction between commercial building stocks and power grid

This paper describes a preliminary study on simulating commercial buildings modeled as consumer agents that interact with the power grid. A simple hourly bottom-up building energy model is developed with respect to climate conditions and building design and operation. This model is used to simulate different types of commercial buildings as agents and to derive the hourly load profile of the entire building stock at the city/regional level. By updating building operating parameters in this bottom-up model according to different occupant control strategies under real-time electricity pricing, the total electricity demand of the building stock can be estimated; this will, in turn, affect the electricity market. Two test cases are modeled to estimate the commercial building stock demand response and its impact on the regional electricity market.