University Campus and Surrounding Residential Complexes as Energy-Hub: A MILP Optimization Approach for a Smart Exchange of Solar Energy

Sergio Rech, Stefano Casarin, Carlos Santos Silva and Andrea Lazzaretto
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Sergio Rech: Veil Energy, 35010 Padova, Italy
Stefano Casarin: Department of Industrial Engineering—University of Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy
Carlos Santos Silva: Department of Mechanical Engineering—Technical University of Lisbon, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
Andrea Lazzaretto: Department of Industrial Engineering—University of Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 11, 1-22

Abstract: An effective way to enlarge the utilization of renewable energy consists in creating a correct interface between producers, consumers, and storage devices, i.e., a so-called “energy hub”. This opens a difficult challenge, especially in the urban areas where the availability of room for the installation of renewable plants is limited. This paper considers a university campus in the center of Lisbon that requires a significant amount of electricity and natural gas to support the internal activities. The idea is to fulfil part of the energy consumption of the campus with the excess of energy supplied by solar systems installed in the surrounding residential buildings. The goal is to find the number and type of solar equipment that maximize the reduction of annual energy costs of both residents and campus, where the campus is seen as a virtual storage. Results of the optimization show that, considering the best-exposed 100 buildings in a radius of 500 m around the campus, the campus can reduce the annual energy expenses up to 8.61%, whereas the money-saving for the residents is of the order of 24% to 29%, depending on solar exposure. A sensitivity analysis shows also the higher benefits for both the campus and users deriving from expected decreasing costs of photo-voltaic (PV) panels.

Keywords: solar energy; photo-voltaic; solar-thermal collectors; mixed integer linear programming; configuration optimization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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