A customer-based-strategy to minimize the cost of energy consumption by optimal utilization of energy resources in an apartment building

Abstract

Global energy consumption in heating and cooling of buildings and in the transport sector together accounts for approximately two-thirds of total energy consumption. Consequently, it is important to maximize the use of renewable generation energy in these sectors, and to optimize the use of that energy by managing diverse sources and loads. This is particularly challenging in high-density residential premises where the space for such infrastructure is limited, and storage can have significant impact on energy utilization and demand. In this paper, we describe a customer-based strategy (CBS) to optimize the usage of the available energy resources in such scenarios. The effectiveness of the strategy was validated for an apartment block of 20 households with photovoltaic generation (PV) and stationary battery storage (BS) systems, each with a vehicle-to-grid (V2G) capable electric vehicle (EV). The modelling used real data for customer demand and included the cost of battery degradation and expected vehicle usage in optimizing resource scheduling. Substantial savings in energy costs were shown to be possible for each customer.