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