Orus Energy: building flexibility for the energy transition
Orus Energy, a specialist in energy flexibility, has developed an innovative technology that enables building managers to optimize the energy management of their facilities by making their flexibility available to power grid operators. Thanks to this solution, building managers can contribute to the balance of the grid, by switching off the consumption of certain appliances (ventilation, heating, air conditioning) without affecting the comfort of occupants. Here's why we support them.
Thetransition to a lower-carbon energy model disrupts the power grid
The power grid, the bottleneck of the energy transition
Theenergy transition is a revolution on an unprecedented scale (150K billion euros invested between now and 2050). It is also absolutely essential, since 75% of human GHG emissions are due to energy. According to theInternational Energy Agency, the main obstacle to the energy transition is power grid management. With the energy mix in a state of upheaval, it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain a balance between production and consumption on the grid:
-increasingly intermittent production: to decarbonize the energy mix, intermittent renewable energies are becoming increasingly important.
- increasing consumption : decarbonization also means electrifying the energy mix (electric cars, heat pumps, etc.), and therefore increasing consumption.
Tomeet these risks of imbalance between power generation and consumption at peak times, grid operators have to call on thermal power plants (coal or gas) that are both very expensive and have very high CO2 emissions.
Demand flexibility, the cornerstone of the energy transition
Tomaintain the balance of the power grid, the other option is to reduce consumption in places, in order to mitigate the peak. This principle is used by grid operators such as RTE in France through flexibility mechanisms: the operator asks certain large consumers to cut their consumption for a certain period in return for remuneration.
Demand flexibility is a proven solution, widely used in the industrial sector, generating 1.3 billion euros in France in 2022 (DSF in Europe 2022 by smartEn). But there are still some untapped resources, and demand for flexibility is still growing: in 2021, Carbone4 estimated that the energy transition would need 5 times as much flexible power to operate properly.
Buildings, ideal candidates for large-scale electrical flexibility
Thegreatest potential for flexibility lies in tertiary buildings, which alone account for more thana third of electricity consumption during peak periods. A CRE report in 2023 thus estimated flexible power in tertiary buildings linked to heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), which accounts for the majority of consumption, at 6GW (= 6 nuclear reactors).
Thanks to the thermal inertia of buildings, heating, ventilation and air-conditioning consumption can be shifted by 1 or 2 hours with no impact on comfort (the #1 concern in offices, shopping centers, hotels, etc.).
Buildings therefore have an energy storage capacity that enables them to cut their consumption in the event of a peak. Shifting consumption is facilitated by the massive deployment of control systems, often referred to as BMS(Building Management Systems), which, according to the BACS decree, must be installed in buildings over 2,000m² by 2025.
Orus Energy, future reference partner for building energy management
An innovative solution
Despitethis considerable potential, the flexibility of commercial buildings has yet to be fully exploited. Making the most of this asset is indeed rather complex for building managers, who have neither the knowledge nor the technological tools to access electricity markets. Orus Energy aims to become the missing link between buildings and the electricity grid.
To make the most of this flexibility potential in the commercial sector, Orus Energy offers asset managers a SaaS platform, connected both to heating, ventilation and air-conditioning equipment (via BMS) and to requests from grid operators.
The platform can therefore react quickly to each demand to cut consumption of certain appliances without impacting comfort, thanks to an algorithm that models the building's thermal behavior.
A young and ambitious team
Thethree founders, Alexandre, Théophile and Fanny met on the benches of HEC after respective courses at Polytechnique, Supaero and Dauphine. They came together around a common ambition: to innovate in support of the energy transition.
In building their first project around thermal batteries, they learned two valuable lessons from their encounters with players in the commercial real estate sector: the sector is reluctant to install hardware solutions, and above all, buildings themselves already have storage potential thanks to their thermal inertia. The discovery of this immense potential is thus at the heart of the birth of Orus Energy.
A clear environmental impact in support of the energy transition
By giving the electricity grid access to the tremendous flexibility potential of commercial buildings, Orus Energy can become a major facilitator of the energy transition.
Orus Energy's environmental impact mainly materializes through the non-use of thermal power plants during peak hours, when the carbon intensity of electricity in France is 100g CO2eq/kWh, compared with 15g outside peak hours (Source: RTE winter 23 data). Avoiding the use of these power plants therefore represents a reduction of around 78% in the carbon intensity of each kWh consumed.
Orus Energy's potential impact on the carbon emissions of the electricity grid is therefore considerable: with a significant number of buildings under management, this represents several thousand tonnes of CO2.
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