Identification of Principal Factors in Determining Building Peak Energy Shaving Capacities during Demand Response Events

In the U.S., the building sector consumes 70% of electricity and lays massive pressure on national grids. To avoid electricity blackouts, demand response programs incentivize end-consumers for reducing their electricity demand during peak hours. Therefore, it is essential for grid operators to understand the electricity shaving capacity of buildings. However, previous studies either simplify buildings as black-boxes - resulting in low accuracy in estimations, or represent buildings with detailed information - resulting in over-parameterized models. In this study, the authors provided a computational framework to identify principal factors that dictate peak shaving capacities of buildings. In total, fifteen buildings during twelve DR events were used as testbeds as validation. The results showed that the day-in-the-week and the quantity of relevant equipment are part of the principal factors behind peak capacity determination. With this framework, practitioners can represent buildings beyond black-boxes with less complexity and promising accuracy of peak shaving capacity determination.