Energy resource scheduling in a smart microgrid neighbourhood

Abstract

This project consists of the case study of a smart microgrid district in a spanish town. The smart energy microgrid district consists of several households and a public use building (school) that includes renewable energy sources (photovoltaic), li-ion batteries for electric energy storage, domestic hot water heaters acting as thermal energy storage, a pool for balancing energy consumptions and supplies, and the connection to the electric grid. The problem has been modelled as a non-linear mathematical programming model that is linearly approximated using special ordered sets of type 2. The linear approximation is solved using Gurobi optimization software providing close-to-the-optimum solutions within an interval of 15 minutes that allows near real time operation of the smart energy district. The obtained results allow to advance within the net zero energy neighbourhood concept in all the evaluated scenarios within a daily horizon, and a positive energy balance in wider horizons. Even if these results are obtained in part due to the magnificent insolation conditions of this particular town, they allow to justify that the appropriate use of renewable energy resources, energy storage systems together with balancing mechanism at district level (as the pool in our case study) may lead to nearly net zero energy neighbourhood in other geographical locations too.