PV CHP

 

The increase of the renewable energy production and its volatility lead to a main challenge for tomorrow: increase the flexibility of the consumption side in order to counterbalance the surplus or the lack of renewable energy production during a given period of time. A smart coupling of electrical and heating systems can offer such flexibility, so that during a high renewable production, energy can be stored into a battery or a thermal storage and be reused latter, in period of low renewable production.

 

Main goal of this project is to develop a practical energy management system (EMS) for individual homes equipped with electrical (PV, battery) and heating systems (combined heat power generation unit, heat pump and thermal storage).

The EMS achieves for the house different objectives: maximum self-consumption, maximum the revenue or offer of ancillary services for future smart grid applications. These goals are achievable because of the thermal and electrical storage, used to flexibly balance generation of PVs and CHPs while ensuring the thermal comfort of the residents.

Outcome and validation

The project will develop a modular and flexible EMS, easily applicable to different combinations of energy conversion units, as those listed above.

A Power-Hardware-in-the-Loop (PHiL) test platform will be developed to demonstrate and assess the strategy with real hardware in a simulated environment that reproduces standard and critical operating conditions. These experiments will support the preparation, development and deployment in field tests, which will take place in real buildings. Here implementation experience, data and the feedback of the users will be collected to pave the way for a market breakthrough.

In this project, ACS and EBC collaborate together with the industrial partners Vaillant and SMA.

Grateful acknowledgement is made to BMBF (German Federal Ministry of Education and Research) for providing financial support, promotional reference 13N13297.