Modular Control Systems for Maximising Solar Energy Utilisation and Grid Service Provisions by Residential PV Systems coupled with Thermal Storage (SUNSETS)

Research Project, 2021 – 2024

SUNSETS will develop and demonstrate innovative solutions and technologies, enabled by digitization, for a solar photovoltaic (PV) -dominated near zero energy building (NZEB) -based local energy community (LEC) aiming to increase PV penetration and enhance LEC's energy efficiency.

SUNSETS's advanced building energy management system (EMS) maximizes, at the building level, the value of solar energy surplus by optimally dispatching building's loads and energy (electricity and heat) storage to enhance solar energy self-consumption and improve energy efficiency by employing innovative thermal storage devices to use the, otherwise curtailed, solar energy surplus. The new thermal storage technologies include the smart residential electric boilers (SBs) developed by UoP which will be coupled with the residual heat from heat-to-electricity (H2E) conversion based on Azelio's technology.

Innovative solutions and technologies will be enabled by an interoperable cloud-based IoT platform that connects digitally all NZEBs to the LEC controller which coordinates the NZEBs to provide ancillary services (i.e., voltage support, harmonic compensation, congestion relief) to the grid increasing grid’s flexibility and resilience despite fluctuations of demand and local generation. At the LEC level, advanced optimization algorithms will be developed for LEC controller that will manage LEC’s energy, considering storage availability while aiming for the energy efficiency enhancement by using solar energy surplus. Based on advanced forecasting, the LEC is self-adaptively clustered to efficiently use resources for different services.

Simulations will evaluate the benefits of the developed solutions, while real-life demonstrations will confirm NZEB ability to provide ancillary services to the grid (Sweden), verify SB operation (Greece) and demonstrate efficiency improvement by combining H2E technology with SB to exploit the heat losses in virtually connected demo-sites (Sweden and Greece).