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A novel coordinated control for NZEB clusters to minimize their connected grid overvoltage risks

  • Research Article
  • Architecture and Human Behavior
  • Published:
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Abstract

The increasing applications of net-zero energy buildings (NZEBs) will lead to more frequent and larger energy interactions with the connected power grid, thereby being able to result in severe grid overvoltage risks. Control optimization has been proven effective to reduce such risks. Existing controls have oversimplified the overvoltage quantification by simply using the aggregated power exchanges to represent the connected grid overvoltages. Ignoring the complex voltage influences among the grid nodes, such oversimplification can easily result in low-accuracy impact evaluations of the NZEB-grid energy interactions, thereby causing non-optimal/unsatisfying overvoltage mitigations. Therefore, this study proposes a novel coordinated control method in which a power-distribution-network model has been adopted for more accurate overvoltage quantification. Meanwhile, the battery operations of individual NZEBs are iteratively coordinated using a sequential optimization approach for achieving the global optimum with substantially reduced computation complexity. For verifications, the proposed coordinated control has been systematically compared with an uncoordinated control and a conventional coordinated control in grid overvoltage minimization. The study results show that the overvoltage improvements can reach 23.5% and 12.3% compared with the uncoordinated control and the conventional coordinated control, respectively. The reasons behind the improvements have also been analyzed in detail. The proposed coordinated control can be used in practice to improve NZEB-clusters’ grid friendliness.

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Abbreviations

ANN:

artificial neural network

COP:

coefficient of performance

CR:

Chinese restaurant

DNOs:

distribution network operators

GA:

genetic algorithm

LV:

low voltage

MATLAB:

Matrix Laboratory

MINLP:

mixed-integer nonlinear programming

NLP:

nonlinear programming

NZEB:

net-zero energy building

PSO:

particle swarm optimization

PV:

photovoltaic

RB:

residential building

SOC:

state of charge of battery

TRNSYS:

Transient System Simulation Program

WR:

western restaurant

WT:

wind turbine

A PV :

PV surface area (m2)

A R :

WT rotor area (m2)

Cp:

WT power coefficient (—)

CAP :

battery capacity (kWh)

COP :

rated coefficient of performance of air conditioner (—)

I AM :

combined incidence angle modifier for the PV cover material (−)

I T :

total amount of solar radiation on the PV collector surface (W/m2)

k :

number of iterations (—)

n :

number of NZEBs inside cluster (—)

OV j i :

overvoltage of jth node in ith hour (—)

OVpeak:

peak overvoltage (—)

P ch :

battery charging rate (kW)

P con :

power consumption of buildings (kW)

P con,AC :

electric power consumed by the split-type air conditioner (kW)

P ex :

power exchange (kW)

P ex, peak :

peak power exchange (kW)

P extot, peak :

peak total power exchange (kW)

P j, j−1 :

power flow in the distribution line between neighbouring nodes (kW)

P PV :

power outputs of PV panels (kW)

P RES :

power generation of renewable energy systems (kW)

P WT :

power outputs of wind turbines (kW)

PLF :

partial load factor of air conditioner (—)

Q cooling :

building cooling load (kW)

R j, j−1 :

resistance in the distribution line between neighbouring nodes (Ω)

SOC min :

allowed minimum battery state of charge (—)

SOC max :

allowed maximum battery state of charge (—)

v a :

wind velocity in the free stream (m/s)

α :

absorptance of the PV cover for solar irradiance at a normal angle of incidence (—)

Δt :

duration of battery charging/discharging (h)

ΔV ji :

voltage variation of jth node in ith hour (pu)

ΔV j, j−1 :

voltage variation between two neighbouring nodes (pu)

ΔV limit :

absolute value of the allowed voltage variation (pu)

ε :

termination tolerance of iteration (—)

η :

the electrical efficiency of the PV array (—)

ρ air :

air density (kg/m3)

τ :

transmittance of the PV cover for solar radiation at a normal angle of incidence (—)

Φ 0 :

amount of electrical energy initially stored in the battery (kWh)

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Acknowledgements

The research work presented in this paper is supported by the Public Policy Research (PPR) Funding Scheme (Project No. 2020.A1.097.20A).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Building Science and Technology, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China

    Yelin Zhang, Norman Chung Fai Tse, Haoshan Ren & Yongjun Sun

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  1. Yelin Zhang
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  2. Norman Chung Fai Tse
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  3. Haoshan Ren
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  4. Yongjun Sun
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Correspondence to Yongjun Sun.

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Zhang, Y., Tse, N.C.F., Ren, H. et al. A novel coordinated control for NZEB clusters to minimize their connected grid overvoltage risks. Build. Simul. 15, 1831–1848 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12273-022-0892-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12273-022-0892-1

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