Grid-friendly operation of a building cluster

Abstract

Energy flexibility of buildings plays an important role on the way to the net zero emission target. Investigation of the energy flexibility of a building cluster requires detailed information on building load depending on load management signal, electricity generation, the local electrical grid and the transformer. The developed co-simulation environment allows detailed simulations with individual building load management signals and setpoints. Building load management uses day-ahead prices and CO2 profiles with an hourly low, mid and high level for each day which can be overridden by transformer priority management when stress at the transformer occurs. Using a cluster of eight single-family buildings it is shown that both building load management signals lead to slightly lower costs for the cluster compared to a case without signal. But the price load management results in higher and the CO2 load management in lower CO2-emissions. Thermal comfort does not change significantly. The transformer priority management is seldomly active, as only grid draw is considered. The transformer is mainly stressed by PV feed-in. The considered building cluster can be operated in a grid-friendly manner in the scope of the building load management. Transformer priority management effects are limited due to cluster size and configuration.