Buildings use 75% of US electricity; therefore, improving the efficiency and flexibility of building operations could provide significant value to the rapidly changing electricity system. Here, we estimate the technical potential near- and long-term impacts of best-available building efficiency and flexibility measures on annual electricity use and hourly demand across the contiguous United States. Co-deployment of building efficiency and flexibility avoids up to 742 TWh of annual electricity use and 181 GW of daily net peak load in 2030, rising to 800 TWh and 208 GW by 2050; at least 59 GW and 69 GW of the peak reductions are dispatchable. Implementing efficiency measures alongside flexibility measures reduces the potential for off-peak load increases, underscoring limitations on load shifting in efficient buildings. Overall, however, we find a substantial building-grid resource that could reduce future fossil-fired generation needs while also reducing dependence on energy storage with increasing variable renewable energy penetration.

建筑物使用了美国 75% 的电力；因此，提高建筑运营的效率和灵活性可为瞬息万变的电力系统提供重要价值。在这里，我们估计了最佳可用建筑效率和灵活性措施对美国本土年用电量和小时需求的近期和长期技术潜力影响。建筑效率和灵活性的共同部署避免了 2030 年高达 742 TWh 的年用电量和 181 GW 的每日净峰值负荷，到 2050 年将增加到 800 TWh 和 208 GW；至少 59 GW 和 69 GW 的峰值削减是可调度的。实施效率措施和灵活性措施可以降低非高峰负荷增加的可能性，强调对高效建筑中负荷转移的限制。不过总的来说，