Building To Vehicle To Building concept for electricity grid flexibility: simulation, case study and parametric analysis

A novel concept for achieving nearly Zero Energy Buildings (NZEBs) is presented. Here, Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and Electric Vehicles (EVs) are used for obtaining clusters of smart buildings connected in suitable micro-grids. Specifically, the electricity produced by PV panels is stored in EV batteries and suitably dispatched to other buildings or to the national grid. In other words, plug-in electric vehicles are exploited as vector devices for PV electricity exchanges among buildings. Such building energy management approach is called Building To Vehicle To Building (V2B2). For investigating the energy and economic performance of such innovative systems, a new dynamic simulation model, implemented in MatLab, is developed. By such tool a comprehensive parametric analysis on the whole system can be carried out by varying the related main design and operating parameters (e.g. vehicles patterns, battery capacity, solar field size, etc.). In order to show the potentiality of the presented concept, a suitable case study was developed. The analysed new zero energy scheme includes three main electrical users, considered as a basic cluster of human-linked energy systems, such as a residential building, an office building, and an electric vehicle. Energy and economic indexes are used in order to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of different scenarios relative to location of PV and energy storage strategies, simulated and compared to a reference conventional one (without RES). A comprehensive parametric analysis is carried out with the aim to find out the optimal design and operating parameters which maximize the self-production and self-consumption of building integrated RES, toward the achievement of the ZEB goal at a cluster level. Simulation results, carried out for several Mediterranean weather climates, aim to assess the energy and economic feasibility of the proposed concept toward the exploitation of off-site renewable energy production and the reduction of grid electricity needs. Preliminary results show that the building grid reliance is enhanced, the grid electricity consumption is significantly reduced, and interesting energy-matching indexes are obtained.