Simulating the effect on the energy efficiency of smart grid technologies

An improved simulator is presented to model (domestic) energy usage to analyze control strategies and improved technology on the system as a whole and is more expressive and allows more future scenarios to be analyzed.

Abstract

The awareness of the greenhousegas effect and rising energy prices lead to initiatives to improve energy efficiency. These initiatives range from micro-generation, energy storage and efficient appliances to controllers with optimization objectives. Although these technologies are promising, their introduction may rise further questions. The implementation of such initiatives may have a severe impact on the electricity infrastructure. If several of these initiatives are introduced in a combined way, it is difficult to analyse their overall impact. In this paper a model is defined and a developed simulator is described to analyse the impact of different combinations of micro-generators, energy buffers, appliances and control algorithms on the energy efficiency, both within the house and on larger scale. The simulator is easily adaptable to new types of micro-generators, controllers and other supported devices. Simulation of two case studies with the simulator shows that the achieved results are promising.