5 - Development of a residential microgrid using home energy management systems

Abstract

Microgrids are emerging to eliminate the growth in load, to integrate intermittent renewable energy resources, and to prevent prolonged power outages. Microgrids are grouped into a single-owned building or campus as well as a community microgrid that serves various buildings with multiple owners. The community microgrid seems more challenging to the owner/operator, known as the aggregator, who oversees the optimal planning and efficient operation of these microgrids. Thus, microgrids should have monitoring and control capability of loads and distributed energy resources (DERs) located within each building. This issue becomes more complex when residential buildings are included in a community microgrid. In the community microgrid, the aggregator should have good visibility of residential loads and DERs to monitor/control this sector's loads. In this chapter, we discuss an optimal configuration of monitoring and controlling and the communication of such a system.