ith today’s rapid economic development, increases in the pursuit of comfort have caused the energy demands of humans to grow higher and higher. However, we are fast approaching the peak of our consumption of fossil fuel and are faced with dwindling fossil fuel resources, particularly oil and gas (EIA, 2011). The rapid depletion of fossil fuels and the growing criticisms of nuclear energy will surely lead to shortages of end-use energy supplies if no actions are taken.
Among three main energy consumption sectors in Japan, energy consumption level of commercial and residential sector is growing larger and larger, increasing at a much faster rate than that of the other sectors, which are also increasing very quickly (ANRE, 2010). In order to meet these continuously increasing energy demands of humans, effective actions should be taken. Thus, taking effective actions focusing on the commercial and residential sector brooks no delay, which can be operated by two manners as
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2 Installed Capacity Optimization in Combination of DER Devices for Residential Buildings
using alternative sources of energy;
increasing efficiency in both the conversion and transport of energy.
1.1 Background
Regarding the use of alternative sources of energy, instead of additional conventional power plants, increasing numbers of central power plants utilizing renewable energy should be established, including solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy, etc. As for using conventional energy more efficiently, growing numbers of polygeneration plants should be built, since they can attain higher overall efficiencies than traditional plants.
As the above mentioned types of technologies are very diverse, it is important to be able to accurately determine their capacities, in order to efficiently integrate them. In this pursuit, many researchers have targeted the determination of the optimum capacity, according to the energy demands of consumers, to facilitate more economical and efficient power plant operations (Ashok, 2007; Carvalho, Lozano, & Serra, 2012; H. C.
Chen, 2013; Ekren & Ekren, 2010; Groscurth, Bruckner, & Kümmel, 1993; Rubio-Maya, Uche-Marcuello, Martínez-Gracia, & Bayod-Rújula, 2011; H. Yang, Zhou, Lu, & Fang, 2008).
However, construction of these plants usually takes many years, and also improvements of energy efficiency in both the conversion and transportation are considered, thus distributed energy resource (DER) devices for residential use, that can be easily installed and quickly implemented merit promotion. DER devices are defined as small-scale electric power and hot water generation devices used to provide alternative to or enhancement of the traditional power station and hot water boiler in this research.
Therefore, a number of research tasks had been done in dealing with DER devices (Andreadis, Roaf, & Mallick, 2012; Ganguly, Misra, & Ghosh, 2010; Ren & Gao, 2010a, 2010b; Yamaguchi et al., 2012). Since a single DER device is very unlikely to provide
enough electric power and heat in a highly-efficient manner, many researchers have done the tasks in determining the optimum installed capacities of DER devices (Khatib, Mohamed, & Sopian, 2012; Khatib, Mohamed, Sopian, & Mahmoud, 2011; C.-H. Li, Zhu, Cao, Sui, & Hu, 2009; Ren, Gao, & Ruan, 2008; Taghipour Rezvan, Shams Gharneh, &
Gharenpetian, 2013), and furthermore, finding solutions for the operations of them (Y.-H.
Chen, Lu, Chang, Lee, & Hu, 2012; Hamdy, Hasan, & Siren, 2012; Kayo & Ooka, 2010; H. Li, Nalim, & Haldi, 2006; Lozano, Ramos, Carvalho, & Serra, 2009; Ren, Zhou, Nakagami, Gao,
& Wu, 2010).
It can be seen that existing papers have mainly referred to the analysis and optimization of electric power and heat generation, rarely any directly involves hot water demand. However, at the present time, the small-scale photovoltaic (PV) and solar water heating (SWH) devices, which use solar as their energy source, have received plenty of attention in residential use. Additionally, the small-scale solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) device turns out to be a good choice for residential energy conservation, since it can generate electric power in a highly-efficient manner, and meanwhile supply hot water for residential use. It is well known that a single PV or SWH device is very unlikely to provide a stable electrical or hot water supply, due to the low energy density and high randomness of solar energy. A single SOFC device is unlikely to provide enough end-use energy in a highly-efficient manner, due to its working principles that the generation efficiency diminishes as the load drops, and in this situation the electrical load fluctuates considerably. Thus, there remains significant work to be done, in order to make optimal use of DER devices that would supply not only electric power, but also hot water directly, while additionally reducing conventional energy and life cycle costs. We believe it will be a great benefit for the residents and the society to find an effective way to reduce conventional energy consumption levels, which will result in greater cost efficiencies.
4 Installed Capacity Optimization in Combination of DER Devices for Residential Buildings
1.2 Objectives
Accordingly, this study aims to present an integration and optimization methodology for the optimum capacities determination of DER devices, which include a PV device, an SWH device and an SOFC device.
Initially, the dynamic models of the DER devices are aimed to be built in this research. Appropriate operation strategies for the integration of the electric power and hot water are determined based on the dynamic mathematical models. With the operation strategies determined, combinations of the devices are selected. Energy conservation effect of each combination of the DER devices is analyzed and evaluated.
Followed, a genetic algorithm is tend to be used to determine the optimum capacities of the devices with consideration for their multi-period operations for an entire year, as the optimization in this research is highly complicated due to the uncertainty of solar radiation together with the load demand variability and the nonlinearity of heat loss from the exhausted hot water. The decision variables that need to be optimized include the quantities of the PV module and the SWH collector, the volumes of the SWH tank and SOFC tank, as well as the capacity of the generation unit of the SOFC. The conventional energy consumption and life cycle costs are treated as the optimization objectives in this research, while limitations of decision variables are chosen as constrained conditions.
At last, a case study of a typical residential building located in Fukuoka City in Japan is aimed to be carried out to clarify the simulation process by utilizing specifications of the systems provided by the manufacturers, as well as available weather data, municipal water data, and energy load data calculated by a life style calculation program, and a thermal environment simulation program.
1.3 Organization
As Figure 1-1 shows, overall, this dissertation consists of six chapters, excluding Chapter 1 presents the background and the objectives of this research, and Chapter 6 proposes the synopsis and the prospects, the remaining chapters are mainly written in two main parts. Chapter 2 focuses on the traditional Chinese kang, which takes efficient utilization of energy resource, is the prelude of the subsequent part, and is an inspiration for us to make optimal use of energy in researching on modern energy devices. Chapters 3 to 5 constitute the core of the dissertation, which focus on the DER devices used in residential buildings, and they are progressively related:
Modeling of three selected DER devices, including PV, SWH, and SOFC;
Integration of the models of the selected DER devices using proper operation strategies of electrical and hot water;
Installed capacity optimization of the DER system integrated by the selected DER devices.
Figure 1-1 Organization of this dissertation