Building Energy Management Systems — Optimization of comfort and energy use

Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS) have been introduced in the built environment as a mechanism to increase the energy efficiency while maintaining the required comfort levels. BEMS also offers promising flexibility for Demand Side Management and Demand Responses (DSM&DR) to interact with Smart Grids. Through the use of intelligent control techniques, BEMS can be optimized to exploit the built environment´ flexibility while ensuring the minimum comfort levels required by the building´s user. This paper presents an analysis framework for BEMS based on a state of the art literature review. Furthermore, Simscape is introduced as a simulation tool that can model effectively sub-systems in the BEMS.