EVELIXIA Research Highlights the Economic and Environmental Benefits of Residential Energy Flexibility
How can residential heating become more flexible while reducing both electricity costs and carbon emissions? This question was at the centre of EVELIXIA research presented at the 21st SDEWES Conference in Gran Canaria, Spain, by Andriy Vasylyev from the University of Genoa, together with colleagues from CERTH.
The presentation, entitled “Evaluating the Competing Economic and Environmental Benefits of Residential Load Flexibility in a European Electricity Market,” explored the potential of residential demand-side flexibility and smarter heating management to support more efficient and sustainable energy use.
Developed within the EVELIXIA project in collaboration with CERTH, the study investigated the optimal operation of residential heating systems by considering two key factors: dynamic electricity prices and grid carbon intensity. The analysis used monitoring data collected in 2025 from an EVELIXIA residential demonstration building in Austria.
Using a thermal model of the building and its hybrid heat pump system, integrated into a Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) optimisation framework, the researchers evaluated different operational strategies and their impact on electricity consumption, heat pump efficiency and indoor thermal conditions.
A key focus of the analysis was the trade-off between economic and environmental objectives. The results showed that intelligent heating management could achieve electricity cost savings of approximately 12–22% and CO₂ emission reductions of 8–14%, depending on the optimisation strategy applied.
Importantly, the research highlighted that the strategy that minimises electricity costs does not necessarily minimise environmental impacts. This reinforces the importance of integrating carbon-intensity signals alongside electricity prices when designing energy management systems for flexible residential buildings.
Through research like this, EVELIXIA is advancing the understanding of how building flexibility can translate into tangible economic and environmental benefits and contribute to smarter energy management across Europe.
