Henze

New report evaluates how we can use energy better in buildings at a community scale

Daniel Morton — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 18:05:45 +0000

New report evaluates how we can use energy better in buildings at a community scale Daniel Morton Thu, 08/07/2025 - 12:05

Daniel Morton

RASEI Fellow Gregor Henze is a co-author and co-editor on a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) Energy in Buildings and Communities Programme (EBC), evaluating the approaches aiming to use energy more efficiently in buildings and districts.

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Decarbonization of the electricity grid and the electrification of transport, heat, and industry related energy consumption are at the heart of many governments’ policies to reach ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The energy consumed by buildings, in building them and regulating the temperature in them, account for about 35 % of global energy use. The integration of variable renewable energy sources into power grids and the growing electricity demand reinforce the need for energy flexibility, a key approach to improve energy savings. Buildings should be able to adapt. Adapt to weather conditions, to their users’ needs, and to the requirements of the energy grid.

This report, that brings together nineteen international experts from across the globe, including RASEI Fellow Gregor Henze, (who was also one of four co-editors), summarizes years of working reviewing the state-of-the-art methodologies for the evaluation of energy flexibility at the building cluster level. While there are technologies to provide energy flexibility at a single building level (such as smart thermostats), this work looks at harnessing savings at a larger scale, aggregating control at scales of multiple houses, buildings, even neighborhoods and towns. Energy flexibility on a community scale is the ability of a group of buildings, such as a neighborhood, an office complex, or a campus, to coordinate when and how they use electricity. Instead of each building operating independently, they work together in a coordinated fashion to shift their energy consumption to time when electricity is cheaper, more abundant, and cleaner. For example, on a day where it is forecast to be hot in the afternoon, everyone might want air conditioning. A flexible building cluster might pre-cool some buildings in the morning when more energy is available, stagger when different buildings ramp up their cooling systems, and use stored energy or on-site solar panels during peak demand hours. By coordinating amongst buildings the power supply can be balanced with the demands across the grid, while comfort for the building occupants can be maintained.

The report highlights that energy flexibility at this level remains a challenge, both in terms of technical challenges and hesitancy in adoption. These are challenges that are being solved. The report highlights innovations that address the technical needs and strategies that are being used to enhance adoption.

As we move to a modern power grid, the energy needs of the building sector will continue to be a challenge. This report contributes to the development of energy flexibility on an community scale, summarizing the technical and practical applications of energy flexibility. This review classifies and addresses four critical areas to systematically understand energy resilience (1. Defining energy resilience; 2. Understanding relevant disruptions; 3. Quantifying resilience and 4. Improving overall resilience), and identifies four main research gaps (1. Lack if a universal definition; 2. Understanding disruptions; 3. Evaluation metrics and 4. improvement strategies). The report then goes on to describe the development of energy flexibility characterization methods to an adaptive method, demonstrated through two case studies, and how these types of methods illustrate building-grid interactions. To move this forward the report also presents an open-source, community driven tool for forecast creation and evaluation. The power of this tool is demonstrated in a collaborative exercise involving 10 research teams worldwide. The results show significant promise, with the authors suggesting that more demonstrations of this approach across a broad range of systems will validate this approach and make it more robust.

While technical challenges remain, this report shows that the building blocks for community-scale energy coordination and flexibility are falling into place. The next step is moving this into more real-world scenarios. Using the technologies that have been developed in actual neighborhoods and communities to prove their effectiveness across different systems, environments and at scale.

August 2025

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RASEI Fellow Gregor Henze Honored as a member of the 2025 IBPSA Fellows Class

Daniel Morton — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 20:18:14 +0000

RASEI Fellow Gregor Henze Honored as a member of the 2025 IBPSA Fellows Class Daniel Morton Mon, 08/04/2025 - 14:18

Daniel Morton

The International Building Performance Simulation Association, or IBPSA, was founded to advance and promote the science of building performance simulation in order to improve the construction, operation, and maintenance of new and existing buildings worldwide. Building performance simulation uses detailed computer models to evaluate how buildings perform under varying conditions, in terms of energy efficiency, carbon footprint, and heating and cooling efficiency.

Every two years the IBPSA inducts a cohort of Fellows, recognizing those individuals who have attained distinction in the field of building performance simulation by either the teaching of major course or by way of research, simulation code development, or the application of building simulation on projects of significant scope.

This year RASEI Fellow Gregor Henze was named as part of the 2025 Fellows class, one of the highest honors in this field. Henze was selected for his pioneering work in model predictive control, which uses mathematical models to predict building system behavior and optimize energy use and comfort; simulation model development, which involves creating and improving mathematical models to explore how buildings respond to factors like weather, utility price signals or occupancy; and building-to-grid integration, which connects buildings to the power grid so the former can respond to electric grid system needs, such as reducing usage during peak times. He is also recognized for his international leadership in research and education.

Gregor is a widely recognized international leader in this field, with recent research sabbaticals in Spain and Australia, and leading educational collaborations with partners in Italy. With more than 200 peer-reviewed publications across topics including advanced building control, data science for energy and buildings, energy flexibility and novel district heating and cooling networks, Gregor has made varied contributions to the field. This innovation is also being translated to applications, Henze is the co-founder and chief scientist at QCoefficient, Inc., and co-founder of Whisper Energy, startups that explore different aspects of technologies that help buildings proactively manage their energy use in real time.

Congratulations Gregor! The induction into the 2025 Fellows class will be formally recognized in August 2025 at the Building Simulation 2025 Conference in Brisbane, Australia.

August 2025

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On-Site temperature and irradiance forecast tuning for improved load prediction in buildings

Daniel Morton — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 19:38:57 +0000

On-Site temperature and irradiance forecast tuning for improved load prediction in buildings Daniel Morton Fri, 03/28/2025 - 13:38

ENERGY AND BUILDINGS, 2025, 337, 115642

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RASEI Innovators awarded Lab Venture Challenge Prizes

Daniel Morton — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 20:59:29 +0000

RASEI Innovators awarded Lab Venture Challenge Prizes Daniel Morton Mon, 10/28/2024 - 14:59

Daniel Morton

Fourteen teams from across the University of Colorado competed for a combined total of $1.25M in startup funding grants as part of the 2024 Lab Venture Challenge (LVC).

Judges from across the network heard Shark-Tank-Style pitches across two evenings, one for innovations in biosciences, and another for physical sciences and engineering. Two RASEI Fellows, Gregor Henze and Adam Holewinski were members of two of the successful teams, being awarded a total of $250k in startup funding ($125k each).

Find out more about EcoValeric Innovations

Visit EcoValeric Innovation's website

EcoValeric Innovations

RASEI Fellow Adam Holewinski was the lead for EcoValeric Innovations, built around an electrochemical process that converts biomass-based building blocks (levulinic acid) into commodity chemicals (4-hydroxyvaleric acid (HVA)), versatile intermediates for producing biodegradable plastics, biofuels and green solvents. This scalable, renewable process has the potential to significantly reduce the reliance on fossil fuels in a sustainable fashion. Also on the EcoValeric team were CEO Roberta Leão and CTO Will Lucas.

Find out more about Whisper Energy

Visit Whisper Energy's website

Whisper Energy

RASEI Fellow Gregor Henze was the lead for Whisper Energy, built around the development of a wireless, battery-free sensor platform for smart buildings. Using machine learning to cut energy consumption by >30%, the platform can provide real-time data to optimize energy use, reduce emissions, and drive toward more energy efficient homes and commercial buildings. Developed through an initial $2M ARPA-E grant, it advances zero emissions in an economic and efficent manner. Gregor was supported by CEO Galen Williams and Technical lead Gerry Conroy.

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Optimal environmental and economic performance trade-offs for fifth generation district heating and cooling network topologies with waste heat recovery

Anonymous — Sat, 27 Apr 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Optimal environmental and economic performance trade-offs for fifth generation district heating and cooling network topologies with waste heat recovery Anonymous (not verified) Sat, 04/27/2024 - 00:00

ENERGY CONVERSION AND MANAGEMENT, 2024, 309, 118322

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The Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering group receives $8 million from DOE's Renew America Nonprofits program

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Dec 2023 07:00:00 +0000

The Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering group receives $8 million from DOE's Renew America Nonprofits program Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 12/04/2023 - 00:00

RASEI Fellow Gregor Henze is a Co-PI on this five-year award

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A dynamic programming based method for optimal control of a cascaded heat pump system with thermal energy storage

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Oct 2023 06:00:00 +0000

A dynamic programming based method for optimal control of a cascaded heat pump system with thermal energy storage Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 10/09/2023 - 00:00

OPTIMIZATION AND ENGINEERING, 2023, 25, 229-251

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Reinforcement learning building control approach harnessing imitation learning

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Mar 2023 06:00:00 +0000

Reinforcement learning building control approach harnessing imitation learning Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 03/28/2023 - 00:00

ENERGY AND AI, 2023, 14, 100255

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Inverse Reinforcement Learning Control for Building Energy Management

Anonymous — Sun, 05 Mar 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Inverse Reinforcement Learning Control for Building Energy Management Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 03/05/2023 - 00:00

ENERGY AND BUILDINGS, 2023, 286, 112941

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An optimization framework for the network design of advanced district thermal energy systems

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Jun 2022 06:00:00 +0000

An optimization framework for the network design of advanced district thermal energy systems Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 06/08/2022 - 00:00

Energy Conversion and Management, 2022, 266, 115839

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