Charging of electric vehicles at commercial buildings

The objective of this thesis was to investigate the feasibility of EV charging management for reducing the electricity cost of commercial buildings. A predictive model was developed to assist the commercial building manager reduce its energy bills by predicting the “triad” peak dates and the building’s energy demand. Real weather data were analysed and considered to increase the accuracy of the forecast. The model was evaluated using real “triad” peak, weather and energy consumption data from a commercial building facility in Manchester. To enable the building manager reduce the EV charging costs, a charging control algorithm was developed and its impact on the demand profile and daily electricity cost of a commercial building facility were studied. The predictive model and the charging control algorithm were integrated into a cloud-based Local Energy Management System (LEMS) for the aggregation and flexible demand management of buildings, energy storage units and EVs. The operation of the LEMS was demonstrated through simulation scenarios using real data from a commercial building facility in Manchester. To fully understand the EV integration consequences, the behaviour of the EV drivers and its impact on the road transport and electric power system has been studied. A multi-agent simulation model was developed to simulate the charging and routing behaviour of the EV drivers. The EV drivers were simulated as autonomous agents in a complex environment consisted of an electric power and road transport network. Different behavioural profiles were considered to describe the way an EV driver deals with the everyday challenges

An ARTMAP-incorporated Multi-Agent System for Building Intelligent Heat Management

This paper presents an ARTMAP-incorporated multi-agent system (MAS) for building heat management, which aims to maintain the desired space temperature defined by the building occupants (thermal comfort management) and improve energy efficiency by intelligently controlling the energy flow and usage in the building (building energy control). Existing MAS typically uses rule-based approaches to describe the behaviours and the processes of its agents, and the rules are fixed. The incorporation of artificial neural network (ANN) techniques to the agents can provide for the required online learning and adaptation capabilities. A three-layer MAS is proposed for building heat management and ARTMAP is incorporated into the agents so as to facilitate online learning and adaptation capabilities. Simulation results demonstrate that ARTMAP incorporated MAS provides better (automated) energy control and thermal comfort management for a building environment in comparison to its existing rule-based MAS approach

Rule-based system to detect energy efficiency anomalies in smart buildings, a data mining approach

The rapidly growing world energy use already has concerns over the exhaustion of energy resources andheavy environmental impacts. As a result of these concerns, a trend of green and smart cities has beenincreasing. To respond to this increasing trend of smart cities with buildings every time more complex,in this paper we have proposed a new method to solve energy inefficiencies detection problem in smartbuildings. This solution is based on a rule-based system developed through data mining techniques andapplying the knowledge of energy efficiency experts. A set of useful energy efficiency indicators is alsoproposed to detect anomalies. The data mining system is developed through the knowledge extracted bya full set of building sensors. So, the results of this process provide a set of rules that are used as a partof a decision support system for the optimisation of energy consumption and the detection of anomaliesin smart buildings.Comisión Europea FP7-28522

A review of microgrid development in the United States – A decade of progress on policies, demonstrations, controls, and software tools

Microgrids have become increasingly popular in the United States. Supported by favorable federal and local policies, microgrid projects can provide greater energy stability and resilience within a project site or community. This paper reviews major federal, state, and utility-level policies driving microgrid development in the United States. Representative U.S. demonstration projects are selected and their technical characteristics and non-technical features are introduced. The paper discusses trends in the technology development of microgrid systems as well as microgrid control methods and interactions within the electricity market. Software tools for microgrid design, planning, and performance analysis are illustrated with each tool's core capability. Finally, the paper summarizes the successes and lessons learned during the recent expansion of the U.S. microgrid industry that may serve as a reference for other countries developing their own microgrid industries

Integrated Dynamic Facade Control with an Agent-based Architecture for Commercial Buildings

Dynamic façades have significant technical potential to minimize heating, cooling, and lighting energy use and peak electric demand in the perimeter zone of commercial buildings, but the performance of these systems is reliant on being able to balance complex trade-offs between solar control, daylight admission, comfort, and view over the life of the installation. As the context for controllable energy-efficiency technologies grows more complex with the increased use of intermittent renewable energy resources on the grid, it has become increasingly important to look ahead towards more advanced approaches to integrated systems control in order to achieve optimum life-cycle performance at a lower cost. This study examines the feasibility of a model predictive control system for low-cost autonomous dynamic façades. A system architecture designed around lightweight, simple agents is proposed. The architecture accommodates whole building and grid level demands through its modular, hierarchical approach. Automatically-generated models for computing window heat gains, daylight illuminance, and discomfort glare are described. The open source Modelica and JModelica software tools were used to determine the optimum state of control given inputs of window heat gains and lighting loads for a 24-hour optimization horizon. Penalty functions for glare and view/ daylight quality were implemented as constraints. The control system was tested on a low-power controller (1.4 GHz single core with 2 GB of RAM) to evaluate feasibility. The target platform is a low-cost ($35/unit) embedded controller with 1.2 GHz dual-core cpu and 1 GB of RAM. Configuration and commissioning of the curtainwall unit was designed to be largely plug and play with minimal inputs required by the manufacturer through a web-based user interface. An example application was used to demonstrate optimal control of a three-zone electrochromic window for a south-facing zone. The overall approach was deemed to be promising. Further engineering is required to enable scalable, turnkey solutions