On the role of demand response and key CCHP technologies for increased integration of variable renewable energy into a microgrid

The potential contribution of non-price based demand response (specifically load shifting) and key CCHP technologies for increased integration of variable renewable energy (VRE) into a low carbon neighbourhood energy system has been investigated. Grid integrated CCHP based microgrid model is developed for a hypothetical model community in Trondheim city of Norway. The model run minimises the total system cost and optimises both the investments and operation costs while trading electricity with the main grid. The analysis is done for two distinct scenarios: (1) without load shifting and (2) with load shifting. Furthermore, in each scenario, four levels of heat pump capacity share in total heating capacity have been assumed. The results reveal that heat pump is a key heating technology in all scenarios, and the thermal contribution of hybrid solar photovoltaic thermal (PVT) is limited to 6%. The optimal VRE integration level ranges from 58% to 64%. The results also showed that, without load shifting, heat pumps enable to lower peak grid connection capacity and system cost by 33% to 47% and 12% to 14%, respectively. Whereas, with load shifting, the corresponding peak grid connection capacity and system cost reduction ranges from 42% to 92% and 13% to 17%, respectively.