Modeling and Scheduling of an Integrated Thermal and Electrical Building Microgrid

This study proposes a day-ahead operation scheduling of a building microgrid (BMG) with electrical and thermal loads, on-site generation units and storage systems. To do so, all the components including heat exchangers, water pumps, battery, combined heat and power (CHP) unit, stratified hot water tank, backup boiler, and heat pump (HP) are modeled in detail. The electrical and thermal sections of the BMG are integrated through the coupled use of the CHP unit, HP, and water pumps. This integration provides the capability of manipulating thermal variables such as temperatures and mass flow rates in such manner that the total electricity demand follows the desired profile and both electrical and thermal loads of customers are fully met. Results show the competence of the developed control strategy for practical applications. The potential of levelizing loads through the integration of thermal and electrical sections of a BMG by taking the advantages of CHP, HP, and hot water tank, is demonstrated.