Building microgrid profile scheduler (BMPS): A web-based open tool for operation profile dispatching towards flexible energy system design and control

Abstract

Demand-responsive building microgrid systems contribute significantly to supply–demand matching in overall power grids and effectively reduces operational energy consumption and carbon emissions in buildings. It is critical to evaluate the operational performance of building microgrids integrating onsite renewable power generation, energy storage, and flexible demand management. There is a research gap regarding efficient methods and tools for operational profile dispatching in sophisticated building microgrids. This paper proposes a novel approach for building microgrid profile scheduling. Four typical types of microgrid components were defined with detailed attribute parameters, and two policy-based profile scheduling methods were proposed, targeting load tracing and cost-minimization objectives. A web-based open tool, the Building Microgrid Profile Scheduler (BMPS), was developed for the rapid performance simulation of microgrid operations. A case study involving a small office building was used to evaluate the performance of the BMPS. Compared with the baseline MPC model with differential evolution optimizer, the BMPS tool achieved an average energy cost saving of 13.76 % and 61,654 times a computational speed acceleration. The BMPS software provides precise, efficient, user-friendly, flexible, and expandable features for the fast operational evaluation of building microgrids, supporting the optimization of design and control in building microgrid engineering practices.