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Modeling and management performances of distributed energy resource for demand flexibility in Japanese zero energy house

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Abstract

Zero-energy buildings (ZEBs) can contribute to decarbonizing building energy systems, while the energy mismatch between energy demand and on-site stochastic generation in ZEBs increases the need for energy flexibility. This study proposed mixed-integer linear programming energy management schemes for optimizing the flexible scheduling of distributed energy resources, including battery energy storage, heat pump, and building thermal mass as a passive thermal energy storage system. With optimally designed objectives, this study used case studies to evaluate the flexibility potential provided by the demand-side management, considering dynamic characteristics of the process. The results showed that the proposed demand-side management for battery storage offers significant potential in increasing photovoltaic (PV) self-consumption and reducing operational costs. Cost reduction ratios of flexible dispatch of combined PV and battery storage systems exceed 15%. Flexible coupling of PV and heat pump systems for meeting hot water demand can reduce energy cost by more than 20%. The flexible coupling of the heat pump and PV system also had a significant impact on the power consumption pattern of domestic heat pumps, the load-shifting potential highly depends on the available PV generation and hot water demand. The optimal trade-off between thermal energy use and thermal comfort violation may not reduce the total energy used for space heating, the increased PV consumption helped reduce grid imports. The study provides insights into the energy flexibility behavior and efficiency of the proposed demand-side management for ZEBs, which is expected to provide guidelines for exploring demand-side flexibility.

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Abbreviations

COP:

coefficient of performance

DERs:

distributed energy resources

HEMS:

home energy management system

HVAC:

heating, ventilation, and air conditioning

IoT:

Internet of Things

PV:

photovoltaic

RC:

resistance-capacity

SoC:

state of charge

ToU:

time of use

ZEBs:

zero energy buildings

ZEHs:

zero energy houses

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China “Research on operation optimization strategy of energy flexible buildings based on synergizing data-driven and physics mechanism approach” (No. 52308098), the Shandong Natural Science Foundation “Research on Flexible District Integrated Energy System under High Penetration Level of Renewable Energy” (No. ZR2021QE084) and the Xiangjiang Plan “Development of Smart Building Management Technologies Towards Carbon Neutrality” (No. XJ20220028).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Innovation Institute for Sustainable Maritime Architecture Research and Technology, Qingdao University of Technology, Qingdao, 266033, China

    Yanxue Li, Weijun Gao & Yan Liu

  2. Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China

    Yanxue Li & Fu Xiao

  3. Faculty of Environmental Engineering, The University of Kitakyushu, Kitakyushu, 808-0135, Japan

    Xiaoyi Zhang & Weijun Gao

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  1. Yanxue Li
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  2. Xiaoyi Zhang
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  4. Weijun Gao
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  5. Yan Liu
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Yanxue Li, Xiaoyi Zhang, Weijun Gao, Fu Xiao, and Yan Liu. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Yanxue Li and Fu Xiao, all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xiaoyi Zhang.

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The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article. Fu Xiao is an Associate Editor of Building Simulation.

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Li, Y., Zhang, X., Xiao, F. et al. Modeling and management performances of distributed energy resource for demand flexibility in Japanese zero energy house. Build. Simul. 16, 2177–2192 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12273-023-1026-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12273-023-1026-0

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