Energy Management Strategies for Educational Campus Buildings in a Virtual Power Plant Environment with Demand Response

Abstract

The electricity consumption in educational campuses in Malaysia continues to increase as more education buildings are developed to accommodate approximately one million students' placements as highlighted by Malaysia's Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) in its Education Development Plan 2015–2025. Concurrently, the distributed energy resources mainly solar photovoltaic in Malaysia has increased over the past few years as the nation is moving towards a sustainable energy development. Therefore, an efficient way to pursue these agendas should be developed through integrated approaches to optimise the overall usage of energy in educational campuses. This paper aims to study on the technoeconomic of a microgrid system with grid-connected photovoltaic and battery storage in a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) environment. The VPP operates to manage the energy in an economical way. The energy management strategy is analysed for several buildings in Universiti Teknologi MARA in Shah Alam, Selangor as a case study. In this study, the buildings inside the campus are being connected as a microgrid by performing simulation for three different models (Grid-PV-Diesel Generator, Grid-PV-Battery, Diesel Generator-PV-Battery) using HOMER software. The buildings' load profile, solar irradiation data and other electrical and grid component's parameters are provided to minimise the system's Net Present Cost (NPC). The findings show that the Grid-PV-Diesel generator has the lowest cost. However, considering grid rates hike, the Diesel Generator-PV-Battery show a better result as it is not influenced by any grid rates fluctuations. Therefore, this study would further enhance the public agenda as a public educational institute to support the current changing sustainable energy development.