Cooling management and control of buildings for unlocking demand flexibility: A comprehensive review on the objectives, objects and methods

Demand flexibility and building-grid interaction have become increasingly important in recent years due to the rapid integration of renewable energy. Effective management and control strategies for building cooling systems are essential for unlocking the demand flexibility of buildings, thereby contributing to the reliability of power grids. Numerous demand response control strategies for buildings have been proposed in recent publications. Consequently, there is significant interest and a practical need for a comprehensive review that examines these strategies from the perspective of implementation and application needs. From the perspective of application engineers and practitioners interested in implementing these control strategies, this paper addresses three main and critical aspects: i). What are the specific control objectives? ii). What are the proper objects to be controlled? iii). What are the available control methods? This paper comprehensively reviews the existing demand response control strategies that utilize central air-conditioning systems from these three aspects: control objectives, variables, and methods. Furthermore, a number of important research directions are discussed for future endeavors from the perspectives of academic research and practical engineering.