Security of energy supply and energy efficiency are challenges for many university campuses. Campus microgrid with distributed energy resources is considered as a solution for solving these challenges. However, the microgrid adoption for university campuses has to consider various factors due to the cost of DER installation and operation, campus activities and energy regulation etc. This paper investigates the possibility and feasibility of microgrid adoption for a university in Denmark, by analyzing the electricity and heat consumption patterns, the capacity of existing installed DERs, and the benefits and barriers for future installation of possible DER technologies. Based on this analysis the paper proposes three energy scenarios with different potential DER solutions, and provides simulations for investigating the energy balance and economic feasibility of each scenario.

The global consequences of climate change calls for adoption of new technologies across all sectors of society. However, it is important to know how fast new technologies are adopted to reach the political climate goals. This paper presents a method for designing agent-based simulations for studying technology adoption. The method includes the design of simulation population, agent adoption logic, and external factors influencing agents' adoption decisions. A case study of the Danish commercial greenhouses' adoption of a smart energy solution is investigated. The result is presented with Roger's technology adoption curve which can be used to demonstrate the desired adoption rate by regulating different simulation parameters. The adoption rate of 50% with the return on the investment of 3 and 5 years is investigated. The greenhouse segment of growing pot plants with an area of more than 20,000 m2 is found to be the innovators. The simulation result shows that the population categories of the 'innovators', 'early adopters', and 'early majority' don't change between the return on investment time of 3 and 5 years. Furthermore, the relation of the return on investment time and the initial cost is close to linear. Hence, a lower/higher initial cost will result in a shorter/longer return on investment time.

European energy policies call for an increased share of renewable energy sources and a more active role of the energy consumer. This is facilitated by, amongst others, buildings becoming energy flexible hubs, supporting smart energy grids with demand response strategies. While there is abundant technical research in this field, the related business and policy development is less well documented. This research scopes existing policy programmes and identifies opportunities and barriers to business development supporting energy flexible buildings. Using examples from seven European countries, this work reviews influencing niche management factors such as existing policy instruments, business development cases and identified stakeholder concerns, using literature research, narrative analysis and stakeholder research. National policy pathways show many differences but confirm that European buildings might become active players in the energy market, by providing energy storage, demand response and/or shifts in the use of energy sources. Slow sustained business development for energy flexibility services was mainly identified in the retail industry, and for energy service companies and aggregators. The direct involvement of end users in energy flexible buildings is still difficult. Stakeholders call for policy improvement, especially concerning the development of flexible energy tariffs, supporting incentives, awareness raising and more stakeholder-targeted business development.

The electricity production from intermittent renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power, has increased significantly, which requires the electricity grid to be gradually restructured through different approaches. Demand Response (DR) is one of the examples which is applicable to a broad variety of electricity consumers, from households to sizable industrial processes. However, there is a barrier to implement DR in that consumers may not be willing to change their behaviour or invest in energy management technologies without gaining enough monetary benefits from doing so. The purpose of this study is to investigate the behaviour of electricity consumers who are offered implicit DR solutions and to investigate which parameters that characterise the consumers who adopt these solutions. The study applies an agent-based simulation model that uses separate and independent modules for the domain logic, the business solution logic and the DR adoption decision logic, respectively. Furthermore, the case study chosen for the simulation is a population of domestic water distribution system water towers with pumps whose operation can be coordinated with the hourly electricity prices from the day-ahead spot market. The simulation results show that tower/pump pairs on water distribution systems with higher water demands adopt the implicit DR solution faster. The pumping rate and tank capacities do not have significant impact on the adoption, at least not if they are beyond a certain size. Meanwhile, the simulation also finds the maximum investment cost for the implicit DR solution to be 71,000 DKK, if half of a water tower population must adopt the solution within a 5-year ROI period.