The role of buildings within future resilient energy systems

The concept of a resilient building is often confined directly to the building itself; construction, building services and (sometimes) occupancy. However, as we see coincident changes in climate, building technologies, fuels, and building operation, it becomes important to extend this definition of resilience to include wider energy systems, whilst still understanding the importance of the built environment within that system. With energy systems, such as the National Grid or gas supply infrastructure, involving multiple actors from different disciplines, a key challenge is to provide guidance and future projections that are translated into different discipline-specific vernaculars, but still have a genesis in a common set of assumptions. A building services engineer understanding the ramifications of a trend towards electrification of heat, and the introduction of new technologies to achieve this aim, should also be aware of how engineers working with supply and distribution are dealing with the same changes but from a different direction. The new £20M EPSRC Centre for Energy Systems Integration is attempting to deal with this challenge. This paper will demonstrate the initial stages of work from the Energy Demand theme of this centre, where novel modelling techniques are being used to both demonstrate the effect of future buildings on national energy demand but also feedback to those involved with building design, so that a more holistic definition of resilience can be included in their approaches. In this way, future resilient buildings will only be described as such if they operate effectively within a resilient energy system.