Abstract
Common property (CP) is a significant consumer of electricity in apartment buildings. Although some apartments in Australia have adopted shared microgrid configurations to offset grid consumption, the characteristics and load patterns of CP are rarely discussed due to lack of available data. As common areas normally constitute part of owner corporations, energy distribution in these premises requires attention. This paper presents empirical analysis of the CP load connected to shared solar and battery storage for three apartment complexes located in Perth Australia. Load patterns for CP over a defined dataset period were analyzed, and grid usage reduction was examined by implementing and comparing three energy allocation strategies based on surplus energy utilization. The findings indicated significant grid usage reduction for CP load in different apartments after implementation of three strategies. Instantaneous consumption decreased 72%, and surplus allocation strategy reduced 91%, while consumption-based allocation reduced 76%, of grid electricity. Moreover, consumption-based allocation offered improved cost benefits compared to the other two strategies. The results further revealed the usefulness of energy allocation and effectiveness of surplus energy utilization. Based on outcomes, the strategies provide consolidation with conventional energy trading mechanisms and broadly link to the virtual power plant concept for coordinating energy flows between multiple generators.
Highlights
In recent years, attention has been paid to the reduction of residential electricity consumption driven by motivations, such as bill cost reduction and abatement of carbon emissions
The Instantaneous consumption (IC) strategy is currently implemented in the studied shared microgrid that distributes renewable and grid electricity based on instantaneous consumption of a particular load
This article investigated the application of a shared microgrid for mitigating grid usage of common property (CP)
Summary
Attention has been paid to the reduction of residential electricity consumption driven by motivations, such as bill cost reduction and abatement of carbon emissions. Environmental concerns have led to large augmentation of DRES, including solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind in the global energy market. The share of global installed PV capacity in 2019 reached approximately 580 GW [1] which is expected to grow to 1320 GW by 2029 [2]. In this context, several market trials of grid connected PV microgrids have been demonstrated due to this increased penetration. Despite the large potential of electricity generation, PV and wind are highly dependent on weather conditions; intermittency is a major challenge due to irregular generation. Energy storage technology has been acknowledged to provide flexibility services to improve grid stability by providing operating reserves
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