A study of economic feasibility of Smart Community. - calculation of profit of Community Operator considering introduction of battery and co-generation systems

Abstract

The idea of smart community which is expected to achieve effective utilization of energy at customer side, and contribute to stable operation of power system, for example peak shaving, et. is introduced recently. Since the smart community would optimize the local operation of the community that might affect the stable operation of distribution power system and whole power system, the development of cooperative operation method between community and power system is important. In order to develop the operation method of the community considering cooperation with power system, development of smart community model that is economically feasible is necessary. This report develops the economical evaluation model of smart community for arbitrary condition such as electricity price, purchasing price of generated power of PV, wheeling charge, et. and evaluate the economic efficiency of smart community. According to the evaluation results, a community operator can get benefit by operating community under the condition such as the lower penetration rate of PV, and higher rate of residential area that includes low voltage customers, in which the community operator can sell much electricity with expensive price to low voltage customers. By introducing co-generation system and utilizing exhaust heat for industrial area, the economic efficiency would increase and the community operator can get benefit from dealing with electricity transaction and selling exhaust heat to industrial customer. This paper also considers the Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and evaluates the maximum storage capacity under the condition that the community operator can get benefit, where the battery would be used for back-up power supply when the disaster occurred.