Decarbonization through electrification of large non-residential civil users: development of simulation models of aggregates of active and passive users for the access to the electricity market

Decarbonization, nowadays, is maybe the main goal of the entire humanity since it is the key to arrest the Climate Change and its consequences on the environment and on human health and activities. This thesis describes the role and explores the potential contribution of non-residential civil buildings in this process. The research, conducted between 2022 and 2025, focuses on elaborating a consistent methodology to analyse large non-residential civil users, in order to assess their carbon footprint (energy related), energy needs, electricity consumption and, above all, to define a feasible and reliable “decarbonization through electrification” path that can habilitate these users to access to the electricity market. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the current policies for the decarbonisation of the civil sector, led by the Fit-for-55 EU program. Chapter 2 focuses on electrification of large non-residential civil users, defining the boundaries of this research, demonstrating the feasibility of this solution, explaining the main efficiency (electric heat pumps, above all) and renewable energy production (especially photovoltaic) technologies. Chapter 3 gives an overview of the possibilities, for decarbonized and electrified buildings, to access to the electricity market both to sell demand response services and to buy/sell renewable energy in optimized modern configurations (“prosumers”). Chapter 4 shows the simulation methodologies used to analyse the case studies of the research. These models are based on current available standards, especially EN 16247 and UNI/TS 11300, and on literature review. Chapters 5, 6, 7 and 8 provide details on the four case studies object of this study, selected according to their common characteristics (tertiary sector, public entities, Rome metropolitan area), in order to start the definition of a representative sample to be used in following researches. The first case study is an Italian museum in historic building, the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome. This museum underwent a decarbonization through electrification process and real measured data were collected and analysed, to demonstrate the reliability and feasibility of the decarbonization through electrification. The second case study is a European research centre, ESA ESRIN in Rome; the third case study is an Italian research centre, whose identity cannot be published since this research contains sensitive data for a tender that will be announced in the next months; the fourth and last case study is the headquarter of an Italian public administration, hosted in an historic building, that has a very strong security policy and has not given the permission to report its sensitive data. These last three case studies are related to efficiency and decarbonization proposals that demonstrate the potential goals achievable through this process. Chapter 9 collects the final conclusions of the research, with a focus on future developments. The last chapters report scientific publications and other research activities carried out by the candidate during the PhD.