Feasibility study of Nearly Zero Energy Building in a real Microgrid case study

Abstract

This paper examines, from the energetic point of view, the design process of a stand-alone house as a microgrid (MG) in Rome, which inhabited by a family of four people. The house is equipped with all the electrical devices necessary to ensure comfort conditions and to achieve a Nearly Zero Energy Building (NZEB). In the island mode, the electric current of the building is supplied by a photovoltaic (PV) system and a battery energy storage system (BESS). All the electrical users present in the house are characterized by a high energy class. In order to make the house working in island mode from an electric and thermal point of view, has been decided to install a heat pump, electrically driven, for the production of domestic hot water (DHW) to feed the radiators and for domestic uses. For this MG case study, a standard load profile and an optimized load profile have been analyzed. The comparison between the two different scenarios has been carried out by the optimization software. The results show an improvement of all the economic and technical parameters in the optimized case compared to the standard case, due to a better exploitation of the energy produced by the PV system. Furthermore, the size of the components with the installation of a Building Automation and Control System (BACS) in the optimized case, is slightly reduced leading to a lower cost of operation and investment.