Dwellings Electrical and DHW Load Profiles Generators Development for μCHP Systems using RES Coupled to Buildings Applications

Abstract

The micro combined heat and power (μCHP) is the simultaneous and decentralized production of thermal and mechanic/electrical energy at low scale (low electrical power output below than 50 kWel). A wood pellet steam engine and a gas (or biogas) Stirling engine μCHP devices have been tested at the laboratory of INSA Strasbourg in order to characterize their performances in steady and unsteady states. Two realistic and dynamic models based on these experimental investigations have been developed in previous works [1,2] in order to predict their energy performances and their pollutant emissions. These models have been implemented in the TRNSYS's numerical environment where an optimization platform has been implemented. Thermal and electrical energy storage systems and energy management controller have been implemented in this platform which is used to optimize the coupling between buildings and this kind of innovative devices by considering energetic, economic and environmental criteria. Dynamic thermal simulations (DTS) only computes dynamic heating loads but the other most crucial parameters of the platform are the DHW load profiles and mainly the electrical load profiles in buildings which needs to be realistic, variable, suitable to the French context and with a low time step (2min). Existing data basis are weakly suited to our platform because of their lack of precision (more than 5min time step), their lack of information (no information about the load profiles for each electrical appliance) or their non-relevance in the French context. The paper deals with the creation of a low time step electrical and DHW load profile generator well adapted to the French context by using a “bottom-up” method aggregating the electrical load of each electrical appliance or specific DHW draw-off by a stochastic way. This work presents the platform and the electrical and DHW load profile generator. A sensitivity analysis shows that low time resolution (2min) is required to obtain reliable and realistic results.