Rethinking Energy Management with Connected Buildings

Better Demand Management to Accelerate Decarbonization

In the context of energy transition, building efficiency—whether in terms of thermal insulation, heating, cooling and ventilation systems or envelope performance—has long been at the heart of strategies to reduce consumption. These efforts remain crucial. However, given the increasing electrification induced by decarbonization—encompassing heating, transport, and industrial processes—electricity demand is expected to rise considerably over the coming years.

This increased pressure on grid capacity, combined with the growing number of renewable sources such as solar and wind power, poses new challenges. Unlike hydroelectricity, these energies are variable and difficult to control, as they depend on weather conditions. This leads to imbalances between supply and demand. For example, the output of a solar panel is at its highest when sunshine is at its peak, while demand may be low at that time. 

Better demand management is becoming more important than ever. Energy efficiency is essential, but it must now be combined with greater flexibility. Historically, our electricity network has been designed to be unidirectional, from centralized production to consumers. This limits our ability to cope with the new realities of electrification and the integration of more variable renewable energies.

Buildings Playing a Role in Energy Use

Kun Zhang builds his research upon this context. He is proposing an innovative approach: transforming buildings to play an active role in energy grids, making them capable of communicating with the grids and adapting their real-time consumption to electrical availability. Rather than trying to produce more, we need to better manage what we already have.

This vision is based on the concept of a two-way network: electricity flows to buildings, which can also send information or electricity to the grid, or adjust their demand according to the grid requirements. For example, an intelligent building could proactively receive a signal announcing an expected production shortage, and decide to recharge an energy storage system (battery or electric vehicle) or preheat its spaces in winter in anticipation of a peak period. This anticipation transforms the building into a thermal or energy reservoir. Indeed, even without a storage system, the materials of the building envelope can store heat thanks to their thermal inertia.

Making the Most of Existing Systems

Kun Zhang is currently focusing his research on commercial and institutional buildings, which are often already equipped with automation systems. But the principle could be extended to the residential sector through home automation. Programs like Hilo, already established in Quebec, demonstrate the potential of this approach. They can allow a space to be heated slightly more before a peak period, then reduce demand without discomfort to the user.

The aim is to make these processes autonomous and intelligent, using artificial intelligence and advanced controls. AI is particularly useful in forecasting demand, which is harder to anticipate than production. While weather forecasts can be used to plan solar or wind production, demand depends on the decentralized behaviour of users, each building being unique.

A New Approach to Energy

This field of research falls within the broader concept of energy flexibility: instead of constantly adapting supply to rigid demand, it becomes possible to make demand more flexible. This paves the way to better integration of renewable energies, without the need to constantly build new infrastructures such as hydro dams, which have a high ecological and economic cost. Quebec, with its hydroelectric know-how and environmental ambitions, could become a leader in this transformation.

In short, Kun Zhang’s research proposes an energy paradigm shift: making buildings the allies of the power grid, for a smarter, more flexible and more sustainable energy transition.