Rossella Alesci

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PhD thesis title: Evaluation of the energy flexibility of buildings

Academic Tutor: Livio Mazzarella

Academic Supervisor: Rossano Scoccia

PhD cycle: 37° (see all student profiles of the same cycle > LINK)

BSc: Building Engineering, Politecnico di Milano
MSc: Building Engineering, Politecnico di Milano

Thesis abstract

My research activity focuses on the evaluation of the energy flexibility of buildings that can help reducing the imbalance between the power demand and supply at the power grid due to the increased use of renewable energy resources that provide an intermittent contribution. In this context, I have developed a detailed building and HVAC model, that I am using to quantify the energy flexibility provided by the various flexibility resources (building thermal mass, DHW tanks, etc) considering different case studies. In a second moment, this detailed building model will be integrated with an optimization problem in a co-simulation framework.

Personal interest in my research theme

I think that acting on the building sector can bring to a strong reduction of the CO2 emissions to fight climate change. In fact, some building components are good flexibility resources, which means that they act as thermal storages to shift the energy demand in function of the availability of renewable energy. For this reason, my research activity is focused on the quantification of the energy flexibility of various building components. I think it is a very promising sector in which there is still a lot to investigate and my objective is to be part of this important worldwide research field.