This applied research is necessary for the future energy grid with a high share of renewable energy and decentralised prosumers.

With the increasing share of renewable energies and the nuclear phase-out in Germany, the energy transition is accelerating. From the perspective of building technology, there is great potential to support this transition given its large share in total energy consumption and the increasing number of flexible and controllable components and storages. However, a question often asked at the plant level is: "How do we use this flexibility to support the regional grid?".

In this doctoral thesis, the graduate of the international master’s degree program Energy Conversion and Management, developped a grid-supportive controller of a real-world building energy plant using mathematical optimisation methods. Additionally, the technical feasibility of this controller was demonstrated. The results could convince actors from the energy industry and academia about the practicality of these methods and offer tools for their implementation.

The cooperative doctorate with Technische Universität Dresden was supervised by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jens Pfafferott at Offenburg University.