Volume 29: Closing Carbon Cycles – A Transformation Process Involving Technology, Economy, and Society: Part IV

A policy landscape analysis of demand flexibility driven building decarbonization: a case study of New York City, USA Abigail M. Andrews, Rishee K. Jain

Abstract

Building electrification and decarbonization are a focus of municipalities around the world as part of their long-term sustainability initiatives. In order to meet ambitious climate goals, buildings will need to minimize energy use through energy efficiency and be grid-interactive through demand flexibility (DF). While mechanisms to understand the relative energy efficiency of buildings are well established, the literature currently lacks mechanisms to score the performance of grid-interactivity and demand flexibility in urban buildings. This is substantial as the carbon intensity of electricity can vary substantially for different parts of the day as renewable energy penetration rises. In response to this, we conduct policy landscape analysis for integrating DF disclosure in energy performance standards and develop a roadmap for enabling DF driven building decarbonization. We focus on New York City as a case study given its current policy push for rapid building decarbonization and conduct an extensive literature review on measuring DF of buildings. Specifically, we aim to: (1) identify the limitations of current policy, (2) determine barriers to adopting DF disclosure, (3) ascertain potential policy recommendations and the potential impact such policies could have on New York City’s building decarbonization goals. Overall, this work aims to demonstrate the decarbonization potential of DF disclosure and in turn catalyze the adoption of similar policy roadmaps for cities around the world.

Keywords demand flexibility, grid-interactive efficient buildings, energy performance standards, urban decarbonization