Simulation for the Management of Power Exchange and Payment between Renewable Energy and Electric Utility Network

Abstract

This paper presents a model simulation of the electric power exchange and the electricity bill for four case-study buildings where three buildings have photovoltaic systems. The data for power demand and power supply which is produce from the photovoltaic system in each building were collected at the School of Renewable Energy Technology (SERT), Naresuan University, Thailand. The data for the power demand were then converted to the load profile curves and calculated for the photovoltaic performance from the solar radiation data. Building load balancing algorithm was developed from the simulation model with the data from load profiles and photovoltaic performances. The results from the overall load balancing algorithm were reported as the net metering and the power status of each building. The load balancing algorithm focused on the initial exchange of power between each building. Then, if higher power demand is required, the power would be from the external source such as the existing utility grid or another building. The result of simulation for four case-study building indicated that under the load balancing algorithm criteria, the buildings could sell 44% (261.99 baht/day) of its power from the photovoltaic system to another building while purchasing 56% (337.92 baht/day) power from the existing utility grid. In the future, this power exchange algorithm could be applied for energy saving and energy efficiency improvement to the homes, buildings, and offices.